Health

Why Children With COVID-19 Swamp Pediatric Hospitals – Infection Control Today

Published

3 years ago

January 6, 2022

Omicron is going hard after the pediatric population, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated and whose vital organs, which COVID-19 attacks, are still in development.

The current surge in COVID-19 cases hits children particularly hard, as pediatric hospitals across the United States report a huge influx of patients. That surge is fueled mostly by the Omicron variant, which accounts for 95.4% of new cases in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (See chart below.) There has been a 400% increase in child hospitalizations at Texas Children’s Hospital in Texas, the largest pediatric hospital in the country, since the holidays, CNN reports.

Jim Versalovic, MD, the pathologist-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital, tells CNN that “we have staggering numbers here from this Omicron surge already. We shattered prior records that were established during the Delta surge in August.”

There has been much hope (perhaps false hope) pinned to early data about Omicron that suggest that it affects upper airways, and not the lungs, as did Delta and earlier iterations of SARS-CoV-2. A COVID-19 variant that produces mild symptoms and can knock the deadly Delta variant out to the way to become the dominant strain could possibly be a way to end the pandemic. But the surge in pediatric COVID-19 gives pause.

“The pediatric population is more fragile,” reminds Linda Spaulding, RN-BC, CIC, CHEC, CHOP, a member of Infection Control Today^®’s (ICT^®’s) Editorial Advisory Board. “We’re seeing children as young as 5 days old getting COVID. And we don’t know what the long-term effects on that population will be because their lungs aren’t fully developed, their brains are still growing, their hearts are still fragile.”

As Spaulding noted in an interview with ICT^® in February 2021, one of the possible long-term effects of COVID-19 on children is multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). As the CDC explains, the condition, which can also affect adults and is called MIS-A in those cases, “is a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19 in which different body parts become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs.”

Spaulding says that vaccines aren’t the answer for many pediatric patients because there are no approved vaccines for children 5 years old and younger. “When we are dealing with the pediatric population, we have to deal with getting them through the illness and monitor them for developing MIS-C afterwards,” says Spaulding, of the current COVID-19 surge.

Even children who can get vaccinated aren’t getting vaccinated as much as adult are. According to the CDC, about 61.2% of the total U.S. population have been fully vaccinated. Children are the least fully vaccinated: 53% for those from 12 to 17 years old. Only 14.7% of children from 5 to 11 years old have been vaccinated.

Edith Bracho-Sanchez, MD, a primary care pediatrician and assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, agrees with Spaulding that the fact that Omicron affects upper airways and not the lungs isn’t good news for pediatric patients.

“We cannot treat the airways of children like they are the airways of adults,” Bracho-Sanchez tells CNN. “It’s just not the way it works. And for us pediatricians, we know that respiratory viruses can lead to … croup and bronchiolitis, that inflammation of the upper airways that does get in children in trouble.”

Spaulding adds that “during their early years, a lot of children have asthma and COVID-19 is not a friend to asthma.” Spaulding urges parents to “do their job of protecting those children and not taking them out in the community and around crowds. I see parents all the time at stores with masks on and the baby in the stroller with no mask.”

In the debate about whether schools should be open for in-class instruction, Spaulding believes that now—during a massive COVID-19 surge—is not the time to reopen schools.

“The schools are open and we’re seeing a large increase of children coming home from school positive with COVID-19 and once again people seem surprised by that. And the consequences is that we’re going to have more children admitted to the hospital.”

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Health

How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

Published

1 day ago

September 11, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.

The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.

Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.

“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”

The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.

A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.

Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.

“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.

Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.

The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.

“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

Published

2 days ago

September 10, 2024

Anne Joseph

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.

Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.

The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.

“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.

Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.

Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.

A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

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Health

Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast!

Published

3 days ago

September 10, 2024

Sven Eggers

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