Children Against Covid

Health News

Health Officials Probing Mysterious Rise in Cases of Hepatitis in Children

Nearly 300 probable cases of children with severe hepatitis have been detected in 20 countries worldwide, with some in Southeast Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, BBC reported. Health officials around the world are investigating a mysterious increase in cases of the liver condition which was first spotted in the UK. A common virus called adenovirus, which has rebounded after the pandemic, could be causing the surge, BBC reported. One death has been reported by the WHO. As of 1 May, it said most cases of young children with hepatitis had been detected in Europe with small numbers also reported in the Americas, western Pacific and Southeast Asia. The first cases of this unusual hepatitis were spotted in Scotland in children under the age of 10. More than 110 cases have now been recorded in the UK so far. Most children had a mild form of liver inflammation, although 10 children have needed a liver transplant, the report said. They had initial symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea followed by yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes, called jaundice. The hepatitis viruses that normally cause the condition (viruses A, B, C, D and E) were not detected in any of the children. Countries worldwide started looking for the same unexplained condition 'of unknown origin' in children after it was highlighted by UK health officials. There is no reason to believe the rare liver condition itself is spreading around the world, BBC reported. (Agency) Read More► How to Maintain A Healthy Liver
CoronaVirus Updates

Asthma in Children Likely to Worsen After Covid Infection: Study

Asthma in children is likely to get worse after a Covid-19 infection, finds a large-scale nationwide study in the US. Six months after a Covid infection, asthmatic children showed significant increases in emergency department visits, hospitalisations, emergency inhaler use, and steroid treatments, compared to children without Covid, researchers reported in a pre-print of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. A team from Children's Hospital of Orange County in California examined 61,916 asthmatic children aged 2-17.9 years who were infected with Covid between March 2020 and February 2021. "Our data demonstrates that while asthma outcomes were improved for those who tested negative for SARS-COV-2, asthmatic children who were definitively diagnosed with Covid-19 have worse asthma control in the first six months after infection," said Dr. Christine C. Chou from the Hospital's Department of Paediatrics. On the other hand, children who tested negative for Covid virus had improved asthma control for the next six months, meaning fewer emergency department visits and hospitalisations for asthma, and less asthma treatment, the study showed. Previous studies hypothesised that there was an overall improvement in asthma control during the last two years of pandemic. Respiratory viral infections are major triggers of asthma exacerbations, including coronaviruses. It was therefore unexpected that asthmatic children have not experienced increased exacerbations during the Covid-19 pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus. Chou said that it was due to hygiene and public health measures, and/or decreased exposures to particulate matter and viral triggers. "In fact, we previously found a dramatic reduction in asthma morbidity after mid-March 2020 compared to previous years, plausibly associated with fewer respiratory viral illnesses during stay-at-home measures," Chou said. "The asthma-triggering effect of SARS-CoV-2 was likely masked by the overall decrease in asthma exacerbations during the stay-at-home measures when other asthma triggers were less present in the community," she noted. (agency) Read More► New Variant of Corona Detected in Patna
Research

B12 Deficiency in Children is

London: Vitamin B12 deficiency in infants leads to poor motor development and anaemia, according to a study which stated that its deficiency is an enormous yet overlooked problem. For many years, there has been a focus on vitamin A, zinc and iron deficiencies when it comes to malnutrition across the globe, whereas there is a paucity of research on B12 deficiency. A lack of vitamin B12 doesn't just potentially lead to anaemia, it can damage the nervous system. And for young children, B12 is crucial for brain development. "B12 deficiency is one of the most overlooked problems out there when it comes to malnutrition. And unfortunately, we can see that the food relief we provide today is not up to the task," said Henrik Friis, first author of the study and a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports. A team from University of Copenhagen and Doctors Without Borders conducted a study among 1,000 children with acute malnutrition aged 6-23 months in Africa's Burkina Faso. The results, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, showed a strong correlation between vitamin B12 deficiency and poor motor development and anaemia. The children's B12 levels were measured both before and after three months of daily food relief rations containing the recommended B12 content. During the period when children were provided with food relief, their B12 levels increased, before decreasing considerably once the programme was stopped. Even after three months of food relief, one-third of the children continued to have low or marginal levels of B12 stored. The unfortunate explanation is that there is a cap on how much B12 can be absorbed. "A child's gut can only absorb 1 microgram of B12 per meal. So, if a child is lacking 500 micrograms, it will take much longer than the few weeks that they have access to emergency food relief," explained Vibeke Brix Christensen, paediatrician and medical advisor with Doctors Without Borders. She points out that it might make a difference to divide the necessary amount of vitamin B12 across several meals, which would probably allow children to absorb the same amount of B12 each time. (Agency) Read More► Study Reveals Why 7 Hours of Sleep is Optimal in Middle Age
CoronaVirus News

कोविड महामारी अभी खत्म नहीं हुई है: डब्ल्यूएचओ

जेनेवा: विश्व स्वास्थ्य संगठन (डब्ल्यूएचओ) ने चेतावनी दी है कि भले ही वैश्विक स्तर पर कोविड-19 के मामलों और मौतों की संख्या में गिरावट जारी है, लेकिन महामारी अभी खत्म नहीं हुई है। कोविड-19 के मामलों में कमी का कारण बड़े पैमाने पर परीक्षण दरों (टेस्टिंग रेट्स) में गिरावट भी बताया जा रहा है। डब्ल्यूएचओ के महानिदेशक ट्रेडोस एडनॉम घेब्येयिसस ने मंगलवार को एक प्रेस वार्ता में बताया कि पिछले हफ्ते, डब्ल्यूएचओ को सिर्फ 15,000 से अधिक कोरोना वायरस से संबंधित मौतों की सूचना मिली है, जो मार्च 2020 के बाद से सबसे कम साप्ताहिक संख्या है। उन्होंने कहा कि हालांकि इस उत्साहजनक प्रवृत्ति की सावधानी से व्याख्या की जानी चाहिए, क्योंकि कई देशों ने टेस्टिंग पर वापस कदम रखा है और इसके परिणामस्वरूप डब्ल्यूएचओ को ट्रांसमिशन और सीक्वेंसिंग के बारे में कम जानकारी मिल रही है। ट्रेडोस ने कहा कि यह हमें संचरण और इसके फैलाव (ट्रांसमिशन एंड एवोलूशन) के पैटर्न के प्रति अंधा बना देता है, लेकिन यह वायरस सिर्फ इसलिए नहीं जाएगा, क्योंकि देशों ने इसकी तलाश करना बंद कर दिया है। यह अभी भी फैल रहा है, यह अभी भी बदल रहा है और यह अभी भी जान ले रहा है। उन्होंने चेताते हुए कहा कि जब एक घातक वायरस की बात आती है, तो अज्ञानता सही नहीं है। डब्ल्यूएचओ सभी देशों से निगरानी बनाए रखने का आह्वान करता रहता है। कोविड-19 महामारी के एक नए आपातकाल के बाद के चरण में प्रवेश करने के यूरोपीय संघ के हालिया फैसले पर प्रतिक्रिया देते हुए, डब्ल्यूएचओ स्वास्थ्य आपात कार्यक्रम के कार्यकारी निदेशक, माइक रयान ने आगाह किया कि यह समय वायरस पर से ध्यान हटाने का नहीं है और न ही इसके विकसित होने की क्षमता को हल्के में लिया जाना चाहिए। उन्होंने चिंता जताते हुए कहा कि तथ्य यह है कि हम अभी तक इससे बाहर नहीं निकले हैं। समाचार एजेंसी सिन्हुआ की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, डब्ल्यूएचओ के हेल्थ इमर्जेंसी प्रोग्राम की टेक्निकल लीड मारिया वैन केरखोव ने कहा कि हाल के पॉजिटिव मामलों में रुझानों के बावजूद, उन्हें टेस्टिंग से जुड़ी रणनीतियों में बड़े पैमाने पर बदलाव और दुनिया भर में किए जा रहे परीक्षणों की संख्या में भारी कमी के कारण विश्व भर में रिपोर्ट किए जा रहे मामलों की संख्या में कम ही विश्वास है। उन्होंने कहा, सकारात्मक पक्ष की बात की जाए तो हम एक बदलाव जरूर देख रहे हैं। हम निश्चित रूप से इस महामारी के एक अलग चरण में हैं, लेकिन हम अभी भी इस महामारी के बीच ही हैं और यह अभी भी एक वैश्विक समस्या बनी हुई है। उन्होंने निष्कर्ष निकालते हुए कहा कि अब समय आ गया है कि हमने जो किया है उसे वास्तव में मजबूत करें और यह सुनिश्चित करें कि हम लोगों को सलामत रखें और हम अपनी अर्थव्यवस्थाओं को पटरी पर लाएं और हम लोगों की आजीविका बचाएं। (एजेंसी) यह भी पढ़े► दमे की दवा कोरोना वायरस के स्पाइक प्रोटीन को रोकने में सक्षम
CoronaVirus Updates

Covid-19 Pandemic Raised Antibiotic-Resistant Infections: Study

New York: People hospitalised during the pandemic both for Covid and other conditions have a higher rate of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections compared to patients hospitalised before the pandemic, according to a study. An estimated 1.2 million people worldwide died in 2019 from antibiotic-resistant infections, and this number is predicted to increase ten-fold by 2050. There have been studies reporting that the pandemic was associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) secondary infections, possibly due to the increase in the use of antibiotics to treat Covid-19 patients and disruptions to infection prevention and control practices in overwhelmed health systems. The study, presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) being held in Portugal, evaluated the pandemic's impact on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 271 hospitals across the US. The researchers assessed AMR rates per 100 hospital admissions before and during the Covid pandemic, and examined whether drug-resistant infections were acquired in the community-onset setting (defined as a culture collected less than two days after admission) or in the hospital-onset setting (more than two days after admission). In total, 1,789,458 patients were admitted to the hospital in the pre-pandemic period and 3,729,208 during the pandemic. The number of patients admitted to the hospital with at least one AMR infection was 63,263 in the pre-pandemic period and 129,410 during the pandemic. Patients who tested positive or negative for Covid had higher levels of AMR than patients before the pandemic, 4.92 per 100 admissions and 4.11 per 100 admissions, respectively. For hospital-associated infections, the AMR rate was 0.77 per 100 admissions before the pandemic and 0.86 per 100 admissions during the pandemic, and highest at 2.19 per 100 admissions in patients with Covid-19. When looking at community-onset infections, the AMR rate was 2.76 per 100 admissions in the pre-pandemic period, and 2.61 per 100 admissions during the pandemic. "These new data highlight the importance of closely monitoring the impact of Covid-19 on antimicrobial resistance rates, said Dr Karri Bauer from the US pharmaceutical company Merck. "It is particularly worrying that antibiotic resistance has been rising during the pandemic in both SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative patients. Hospital-acquired infections are a major concern, with antimicrobial resistance rates significantly higher during the pandemic than before," he added. (Agency) Read More► Omicron Ups Risk of Upper Airway Infections, Cardiac Arrest in Small Kids
CoronaVirus Updates

6 in 10 People Continue

Six in 10 people with SARS-CoV-2 still have at least one symptom of long Covid a year later, with fatigue, shortness of breath and irritability being the most common, a new study has shown. The study, being presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Portugal, found that Covid-19 symptoms that don't clear up after 15 weeks are likely to last at least a year. An estimated 25-40 per cent of people with Covid-19 develop long Covid, persisting symptoms that can affect multiple organs and include mental health problems. Most of the data to date, however, is based on patients who were hospitalised with Covid-19 and it isn't clear how it applies to Covid-19 cases more generally. To find out more, Aurelie Fischer and colleagues at the Luxembourg Institute of Health in Luxembourg, surveyed almost 300 people a year after they were diagnosed with Covid. The 289 participants (50.2 per cent women) had an average age of 40.2 years and were divided in three groups, based on the severity of their initial infection: asymptomatic, mild and moderate/severe Covid-19. They were asked to fill in a detailed questionnaire about whether they were experiencing 64 common long Covid-related symptoms. A third (34.3 per cent) were experiencing fatigue a year on, 12.9 per cent said respiratory symptoms were affecting their quality of life and more than half (54.2 per cent) had ongoing sleep problems. Participants who had moderate/severe Covid-19 were twice as likely to still have at least one symptom a year on than those whose initial infection was asymptomatic. Having had moderate/severe Covid-19 was also associated with more sleep problems after a year than being asymptomatic (63.8 per cent vs. 38.6 per cent). "Participants with a mild form of the acute illness were more likely than those who'd been asymptomatic to have at least one symptom at one year, and to have sleep problems, but to a lesser extent than those with a moderate or severe acute illness," Fischer said. One in seven participants (14.2 per cent) said they could not envisage coping with their symptoms long-term. Further, the analysis also revealed that some groups of symptoms tend to occur together, suggesting that there are multiple different types of long Covid. Read More► Covid Not Only Infects Human Retina, But Can Also Replicate in It