Children in Pakistan die from the coronavirus at a higher rate than in Western countries. Since March 2020, the corona virus has claimed the lives of 159 children in Pakistan, experts said, adding that the country’s mortality rate for youngsters is above 14%, “unusually high” in comparison to other regions of the world.
A joint study conducted by the Aga Khan University’s National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and National Institute of Child Health in Karachi; the Children’s Hospital in Lahore; and the Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi revealed that the percentage of deaths among children was over 14%, in contrast to western countries where COVID-19 mortality rates have been reduced to less than 1%.
According to a World Health Organization-sponsored multi-center research in Pakistan, one in seven children who contracted moderate to severe COVID-19 died, a rate that was many times higher than in Western countries.
The study enrolled 1,100 youngsters who tested positive for the virus and were hospitalised for treatment. Between March 2020 and December 2021, the research sampled newborns, infants, babies, and babies, smells up to the age of 18 years.
The study discovered that children with underlying health issues such as malnutrition, cancer, or cancer, vascular disease were more likely to die from COVID-19, with 19.5 percent of young patients with comorbidities dying.
Even youngsters in good health were at risk; eight such children died after contracting the virus in Pakistan. Similar studies conducted in western countries discovered that the mortality rate for children infected with COVID-19 is less than 1%.
The study’s first findings indicated that the primary cause of death from COVID-19 was a multi-system inflammatory syndrome, MIS-C, which often developed after a kid was infected. It induced inflammation in vitcausesans such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, and gastrointestinal organs.
Respiratory problems were another important source of fatal viral complications.
The researchers noticed that the majority of deaths occurred in 2021 rather than 2020, implying that later versions of the virus may be more lethal than the variant associated with the epidemic in Pakistan.
“While the overall mortality rate from COVID-19 infection in children is lower than in adults, it is clearly obvious that COVID-19 infection is not a benign condition in children. The virus is constantly developing, and physicians should adhere to the most recent treatment standards. In Pakistan, the study’s lead investigators are Dr Qalab Abbas, Dr Fyezah Jehan, and Jehan,azia Mohsin.
