More newborns show symptoms

COVID-19 instances among the many paediatric inhabitants has been on the rise in Tamil Nadu. Doctors have been noticing that extra newborns are presenting with symptoms through the second wave of the contagion than within the first wave.

At least 1,000-1,300 kids, aged 0-12, are testing optimistic every day over the previous few days. “The number of children testing positive is quite high. When parents test positive, the children, too, are infected,” mentioned S. Srinivasan, State Nodal Officer-Child Health.

Though kids had been affected, there was no development to extreme illness, mentioned J. Kumutha, skilled adviser-child well being, National Health Mission-Tamil Nadu. “We are seeing mild to moderate disease in children. Nevertheless, children with co-morbidities, such as malignancies, chronic diseases and other immune-compromised conditions, should be protected as they run the risk of getting infected, and mortality is high,” she mentioned.

Babies born to COVID-19 moms appeared to be asymptomatic, she added.

There have been a couple of noticeable adjustments within the second wave. As Dr. Srinivasan mentioned, “A number of newborns are admitted to the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children on the 12th, 13th and 14th day of birth. So far, there have been no problems. In some newborns, there is a history of fever that is unusual. We have noticed some pneumonic changes in X-rays in a few of them.”

N. Chandrakumar, head of the Department of Neonatology, Kanchi Kamakoti CHILDS Trust Hospital (KKCTH), mentioned, “We had a lot of newborns testing positive in the first wave, but most of them were asymptomatic. Now, we are seeing more newborns presenting with symptoms. We have a newborn who presented with COVID-19 pneumonia and was put on ventilator. Now, we have also seen in a newborn the multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which was only reported in older children.”

Among all contaminated newborns, about 20% develop symptoms and the remaining are regular. Of them, 1%-2% develop vital symptoms of cough and require admission. About 1%-2% have pneumonia and MIS-C, he mentioned.

What precautions are wanted? “Pregnant women who develop any symptom or fever should tell clearly before delivery as any mild infection can have implications for the baby. All mothers should be tested prior to delivery so that we can ascertain if the baby is at risk of infection. We recommend testing the baby in 48 hours,” Dr. Chandrakumar mentioned. He mentioned dad and mom ought to look ahead to symptoms of MIS-C in newborns — re-appearance of fever, rash, diarrhoea and irritability.

“We are seeing more children with pneumonia in the second wave, and we continue to see cases of MIS-C,” mentioned Janani Sankar, senior marketing consultant, KKCTH. While quite a lot of kids are triaged by means of tele-consultation, medical doctors ask the dad and mom to carry the kids to hospital in case of any warning symptoms, similar to persistent fever, any excessive grade fever, diminished oral consumption, excessive fatigue/lethargy, vomiting, stomach ache and any new rash, she mentioned.