Growing Concerns Over COVID-19 Consequences on Children’s Health

While the World Health Organization has warned about the side effects of the coronavirus outbreak on children, reports have also been released indicating an increase in some rare but severe complications among them that may be linked to COVID-19.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, on April 28th during his press conference, said “Children may face lower risks from the COVID-19 outbreak, but they face significant risks due to being unvaccinated against other diseases.”

Tedros states that vaccine shortages have been reported in at least 21 countries, and these shortages are caused by border and travel restrictions for transporting medicines.

Concerns have also been expressed in Iran regarding children’s vaccination.

Mohsen Zaharaee, head of the government department for vaccine-preventable diseases, had warned on April 27th about the danger of neglecting vaccination in the conditions of the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr. Zaharaee told Iran’s domestic news agencies, “There is a fear that alongside the coronavirus pandemic, we may witness pandemics of other contagious diseases such as polio and measles.”

According to this health ministry official, a decline in vaccination coverage causes the health and treatment network, while dealing with coronavirus, to simultaneously face vaccine-preventable diseases.

The World Health Organization has also warned of a possible increase in polio, measles, cholera, yellow fever, and meningitis.

Current data indicates that children and adolescents are almost not at risk of severe COVID-19 infection. Statistics also show that the likelihood of children dying due to this disease is very, very low.

However, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on medical, educational, social, and family services have repeatedly faced warnings from international authorities, researchers, and experts.

Beyond this, what has been the focus of attention in recent days is reports of complications and observations of Kawasaki syndrome among children in Britain and Italy.

The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday that more than ten children are showing signs of dangerous complications linked to COVID-19.

CNN news network says a small but growing number of children have faced apparently side-effect complications resulting from the coronavirus outbreak.

Reuters reported that in Italy, alongside Britain, investigations are underway into a group of children who recently developed severe fever and blood vessel inflammation.

Based on these reports, the complications are mainly similar to Kawasaki syndrome. This disease occurs most often in children under five years old and damages blood vessels and arteries. In some cases, these damages can be serious and severe.

The Iran Rare Diseases Foundation, like other research centers, has emphasized that the cause of Kawasaki disease is unknown, but it likely has an infectious origin and may be caused by factors such as bacteria or viruses.

Myocardial infarction is considered the most dangerous complication of Kawasaki disease.

Of course, more tests and research are still needed to establish the link between the increasing new cases in Britain and Italy among children and COVID-19. Reuters says a major children’s research center in the United States has said it has not yet seen a similar case. No reports on this matter have been published in Iran.

Source: Radio Farda