Paediatricians warn of monsoon diseases as deadly as Covid-19 for children

PUNE With the monsoon officially here, paediatricians in the city are cautioning parents to protect their children from other infectious diseases, apart from Covid-19, which can be just as fatal, if not worse

PUNE With the monsoon officially here, paediatricians in the city are cautioning parents to protect their children from other infectious diseases, apart from Covid-19, which can be just as fatal, if not worse.

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As per Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) data, in the second Covid wave between March and June 9, 2021, the city reported 0.27 million Covid cases, of which, 26,000 cases were reported in those aged between 0-18 years. Of these the case fatality rate was 0.03%, or nine mortalities. This is much lower than fatalities reported in children due to other infections.

Dr Pradeep Suryavanshi, city paediatrician said, “As the monsoon is approaching, parents need to be more cautious with their children as they are more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Children under the age of five, who have not yet developed immunity, are more vulnerable to infection. There is both viral and bacterial diarrhoea and pneumonia, which has a case fatality rate of about 1%, much higher than Covid-19. This number might be even higher in rural areas. Given the Covid situation, children are safer now from these outside infections as they are less exposed to outside food and also come less in contact with other children who may be ill or infected.”

Dr Aarti Kinikar, who heads the paediatric department at the BJ Medical College, said, “Children are more vulnerable to pneumonia, diarrhoea, typhoid, jaundice and even vector-borne disease like dengue and malaria. The mortality due to these infections is higher when coupled with malnutrition. Even before Covid-19 these infections had a higher mortality rate among children. During the monsoons the number of these infectious cases rises, so it is important to vaccinate children against these infections, including giving them influenza shots and full vaccinations.”

As per PMC data on Covid-19 cases reported from March 1 to June 9, 26,292 cases were of those aged between 0 and 18 years.

Of these, 25,799 recovered and nine were declared dead as of June 10. Of the 484 that were active cases, 62 were in isolation beds and nine were on oxygen beds. The rest were in home isolation.

As per the national child welfare report for 2019-20, the major causes of child mortality in India (2010-2013), are prematurity and low birth weight (29.8%), pneumonia (17.1%), diarrhoeal diseases (8.6%), other communicable diseases (8.3%), birth asphyxia and birth trauma (8.2%), injuries (4.6%), congenital anomalies (4.4%), ill-defined or cause unknown (4.4%), acute bacterial sepsis and severe infections (3.6%), fever of unknown origins (2.5%) and all other remaining causes (8.4%). Besides these, malnutrition is a contributory factor in 50% of child deaths.

Covid-19 case fatality rate for children

Between March 1 and June 9

Total progressive Covid-19 cases: 270,337

Positive patients aged 0-18 years: 26,292

% of children in progressive case count: 9.73%

Active cases as of June 10: 484

Recovered: 25,799

Deaths: 9

Case fatality rate: 0.03%