Consequences of Covid 19 Pandemic on Children

Abstract

The Pandemic of SARS COV 2 popularly known as ‘Corona Virus19’ has affected 213 countries and territories around the world since the beginning of year 2020. All the countries have focused their attention acutely on the higher fatality rate the virus has caused among the elderly and launched a scientific enquiry on why children have emerged relatively unaffected. This pandemic has already amplified existing social fractures and inequalities and it is expected that all most all countries may take 5-10 years to return to their socio-economic status of 2019. Most importantly people are losing trust in healthcare system. As the Global tally of cases crosses 28 million cases and nearly 0.9 million deaths on 10th September 2020, with the highest daily case of 300,683 on 4 September 2020 and deaths of 8513 on 17 April 2020. However, the proportion or absolute number of cases and deaths in children is not readily available at Global, National, or even at local levels. In the beginning it was estimated that the children under 14 years contributed less than 0.5% and therefore the Children were not the face of this pandemic. The sub-national data in states reporting desegregated data in USA and India indicate that the children contribute between 0.1% to 10% in the recent weeks. The pandemic of COVID-19 initially appeared to cause only a mild illness in children and immediate health impact, or mortality rates were not alarming. A few weeks following the peak of COVID-19 epidemic in the US and the European Union, a novel systemic illness called Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) has been reported with devastating effect. Most importantly children’s risk being among its biggest victims, their lives are being changed in profound ways. What has escaped our attention is the long-term damage the cascading effect of COVID-19 is likely to cause in children through inadequate health services, broken medical supplies, interrupted access to nutritious food, immunization services, informal learning ,emotional bonding among peers, Anganwadi workers affectionate care especially when, and the parents are facing income loss due to loss of jobs and low opportunities of alternatives of earning livelihood. This paper is a review of the comprehensive consequences of Covid 19 Pandemic on Children. Materials & Methodology: This paper used the data from WHO dashboard, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GOI India or States National Health Mission websites or other websites, like John Hopkins’s University, CDC Atlanta, NSSO, Google and Wikipedia etc. For Indian scenario I have used the data from a recent online publication of Indian Academy of Paediatrics, American Academy of paediatrics, small study reports in daily national and local newspapers, mainly Times of India, Indian Express, The Hindu etc. Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai editions. Study Setting & Sampling: The review covers major states and cities setting. Being the secondary data review available data was used with no sampling.