KARACHI: Amid fears of second wave of the coronavirus in the country with no more restrictions and lockdown in place, the health professionals and medical science experts have called for more precautions and care among children who can become silent carriers of the virus and spread it more than others.
They argued that symptoms of COVID-19 in children completely differ from adults and those who contracted the coronavirus infection reported with flu symptoms to diarrhea and vomiting as well as symptoms of "Kawasaki Disease".
An eminent paediatrician said on Monday that there is an urgent need to initiate research and studies to determine effects of COVID-19 on children as well as teenagers in Pakistan.
Of the total 328,602 confirmed cases in Pakistan, 11035 are children of less than 10 years of age while 24,755 children and teenagers of 11 to 19 years of age got infected with the coronavirus in Pakistan in the last eight months. So far 6,730 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 in the country.
"Although only 0.3 percent of children of less than 10 years of age contracted the coronavirus infection in Pakistan while mortality among them also remained negligible yet they can be carriers and infect their parents and grandparents. Instead of sending them to schools where they cannot follow the SOPs, they should be taught at homes by their parents," Prof. Dr. Jamil Akhtar, an eminent paediatrician and office-bearer of the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA), said on Monday.
Talking to a group of newsmen here, Dr. Jamil Akhtar said although very few children contracted the coronavirus infection in Pakistan yet it is also a fact that very few children were tested for the coronavirus infection as symptoms of COVID-19 among them completely differ from those of adults.
"Actually, very few children have been tested so far for the COVID-19 in Pakistan, so the ratio of Covid positive children is less as compared to adults. When a couple is tested positive for the coronavirus infection, it is generally presumed that children would have remained safe from the infection. As most of the children hardly show any classic symptoms of COVID-19, they have not been tested as aggressively as adults," Dr. Akhtar added.
To a query as to why children were being spared by the virus as compared to adults all over the world including Pakistan where nutritional status is quite weak as compared to rest of the world, Prof. Akhtar maintained that there were still many mysteries about this novel coronavirus that needs to be solved to understand it and added that it is important to conduct studies as this virus is going to remain in the world for quite some time even if vaccines are invented.
He claimed that children carry the coronavirus asymptomatically like many adult asymptomatic patients, which is evident from the deaths of several paediatricians and child-specialists who were likely to have contracted the disease from their little patients and added that it is important to prevent children from contracting the disease to reduce mortality among elderly people of the society.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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