[ad_1]
New York Times
Why is COVID killing so many toddlers in Brazil?The doctor is confused
Rio de Janeiro — A mother suffering from the fever of an unbreakable toddler took the girl Leticia to the hospital. The doctor had the news to be worried about: it was COVID-19. However, they were relieved, noting that children rarely develop serious symptoms, said mother Ariani Roque Marinheiro. Less than two weeks later, on February 27, Leticia died in the emergency room of a hospital in Maringa, southern Brazil, after several days of dyspnea. Sign up for The Morning Newsletter for The New York Times. “It happened so early that she’s gone,” said 33-year-old Marinheiro. “She was everything to me.” COVID-19 is devastating Brazil and seems to be killing babies and small children at an unusually high rate in the disturbing new wrinkles that experts are trying to understand. Looks like. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, 832 children under the age of five have died from the virus since the pandemic began. There are few comparable data as the country tracks the effects of the virus differently, but in the United States, which is much more populous than Brazil and has a higher overall death toll from COVID-19, is 4 years old. The following 139 children have died: Dr. Fatima Marinho, an epidemiologist at the University of São Paulo, said Brazil’s official infant mortality rate is likely to be significantly underestimated, as the lack of extensive testing means that many cases are undiagnosed. Stated. Marinho, who is leading a study that counts child mortality based on both suspicious and confirmed cases, has more than 2,200 5 including more than 1,600 babies under the age of 1 since the outbreak of the pandemic. It is estimated that a child under the age of one died. “We have a big impact on our children,” Marinho said. “That’s a ridiculously high number. I’ve never seen it anywhere else in the world.” Experts in Brazil, Europe, and the United States seem to have the highest number of child deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil. I agree to be “These numbers are amazing. They are much higher than those found in the United States,” said Vice-Chairman of the Infectious Diseases Commission of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado Anschutz. Dr. Sean O’Leary, a specialist, said. Medical campus. “Any of the measures we’re taking here in the United States have made those numbers quite high.” According to scientists, the effects of viral variants on babies and children are young and healthy. There is no evidence that adults have more severe COVIDs and that deaths are increasing in Brazil. But experts say the variant seems to increase mortality in pregnant women. Dr. Andrelical Drivas Freitas, an epidemiologist at San Leopold Mandick College in Campinas, said that some women with COVID are giving birth to dead or premature infants who are already infected with the virus. I will. “We can already see that the P.1 mutant is much more severe in pregnant women,” said Ribas Freitas. “And in many cases, if a pregnant woman is infected with the virus, the baby may not survive or both may die.” Experts say to the health care of sick children. The lack of timely and proper access to the virus is likely to be a factor in the number of deaths. In the United States and Europe, early treatment is key to the recovery of children infected with the virus, experts say. In Brazil, overstretched doctors are often late to confirm infections in their children, Marinho said. “Children have not been tested,” she said. “They are sent out, and COVID-19 is suspected only when these children return in really bad condition.” Dr. Larache Cardemian, Head of Critical Care at Texas Children’s Hospital Said that while the mortality rate of children infected with COVID-19 is still very low, children living in countries with poor medical care are at greater risk. “Children who may need a little oxygen today may enter the ventilator next week if they don’t have access to the oxygen and steroids we give them in the early stages of the disease,” says Sheka Demian. I did. “So what could be a simple hospitalization in my world could result in children in need of medical care that they simply cannot get if there is a delay in access to care.” 1 Children in four other countries in Brazil and Latin America have more severe COVID-19 and multisystemic inflammatory, a rare and extreme immune response to the virus, according to a study published in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal in May. I developed more cases of syndrome. With data from China, Europe and North America. Even before the pandemic began, millions of Brazilians living in poorer areas had limited access to basic medical care. In recent months, the system has been overwhelmed as patient crushing has flooded critical care units, causing chronic bed shortages. Dr. Ana Luisa Pacheco, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Heitor Vieira Dourado Tropical Medicine Foundation in Manaus, said: “For some children, it takes three or four hours by boat to get to the hospital.” Amid the surge in infectious diseases in Brazil, the number of children’s cases has skyrocketed. Experts attributed the government’s refusal to take positive steps to promote social distance and the Cavalier response of President Jair Bolsonaro to the pandemic. The economic stagnation has forced millions of people to lose their income and food and risk infection when looking for a job. Some of the children who died from the virus already had health problems, making them more vulnerable. Still, Marinho estimates that it accounts for just over a quarter of the deaths of children under the age of 10. This suggests that healthy children also appear to be at increased risk of the virus in Brazil. Leticia Marinheiro was such a child, her mother said. According to Marin Heiro, he is a healthy baby who has just started walking and has never been ill. Marin Heiro, who became ill with her husband Diego, 39, believes that Leticia might have been alive if her illness had been treated more urgently. “I don’t think they believed she would get so sick. They didn’t believe it could happen to a child,” Marinheiro said. She remembered begging for more tests. Four days after the child was hospitalized, she said the doctor had not yet fully examined Leticia’s lungs. Marin Heiro still doesn’t know how his family got sick. She kept Leticia, the first child the couple had terribly wanted for years, at home and away from anyone. Her husband, a hair salon product supplier, was careful to avoid contact with customers, even though she continued to work to keep her family financially viable. For Marin Heiro, the sudden death of her daughter left a big hole in her life. As the pandemic intensifies, she says she wants to stop other parents from underestimating the risk of the virus that kept Leticia away from her. In her city, families are holding birthday parties for their children and watching authorities push for school reopening. “This virus is very unexplainable,” she said. “It’s like playing the lottery, and we never believe it will happen to us. It’s only when you take someone out of your family.” This article was originally from The New York. It was published in the Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company
[ad_2]