Centre-run Kalawati Saran Hospital to conduct largest study on children to gague quantum of Covid

By Ashish Srivastava

New Delhi, Nov 13 (SocialNews.XYZ) A study on around 3,000 children to ascertain the quantum of Covid-19 and associated respiratory illness it triggers among the paediatric age is underway at Centre-run Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital, IANS has learnt. The study is the first and largest till now in the country to be conducted specifically on the paediatric age.

The survey, which is being conducted at present, would cater towards different categories of children to get a concrete picture of the Covid scenario among kids.

Dr. Virendra Kumar, Head of Department Paediatrics at the hospital, told IANS that the data is under analysis and would be published in a month. "We have screened almost 2,500 to 3,000 children for this survey.We are soon coming out with a study where we would reveal the prevalence of different stages of Covid-19 (mild, moderate, severe) among the children who came to our hospital amid the pandemic," he informed.

Dr. Kumar also said that the hospital would be surveying children who were admitted at the hospital in Covid, non-Covid and suspected areas. "We had developed our system in such a way that any child coming to the hospital would be screened first. So, in screening, whoever had flu-like symptoms they will go in flu OPD and others will go in routine OPD. Now, children from both the OPD were getting admitted," Dr. Kumar averred.

Kalawati Saran Children Hospital was established on 17th March 1956 as a centre of excellence in paediatric care and research. The study it is conducting is expected to be completed by next week and would be then submitted to a medical journal for publication and peer reviews.

Dr Rajini Sharma, Assistant Professor, Paediatric at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) told IANS that the study will reveal the extent of Covid-19's impact on children which was unaccounted up till now due to the dearth of concrete data.

"This will be one of the largest surveys to be conducted on children who have caught the virus. According to doctors, children who got Covid were mostly mild or asymptomatic; this is why there is no concrete data. Children have mostly got very mild forms of the disease. However, the baby can transmit healthcare workers. When babies were being brought for check-ups, healthcare workers were more vulnerable to it, because patients who were admitted were already maintaining social distancing," she added.

A recent study by AIIMS revealed that nearly 73.5 per cent of the asymptomatic cases were reported among children below the age of 12. The study was conducted on the patients from the centre only. The proportion decreased linearly with age, with 38.4 per cent of the asymptomatic cases among people of octagenarians.

Source: IANS