Hospitals Need To Be Differently Prepped For Children With Covid: Experts

Anoo Bhuyan

May 27, 2021

Photo: Arun Sambhu Mishra/Shutterstock.com

The medical expertise, equipment and approach needed to treat children with Covid-19 is a unique challenge in India where the health infrastructure has been hit by decades of underfunding and neglect, say experts

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Jesal Sheth, a paediatrician at Fortis Hospital, Mulund, says the infrastructure for child-care did not get overwhelmed in the 1st or 2nd wave but the country will have to prepare for the future as this could happen. 40% of India’s population is aged under 19

Children vulnerable to the virus need special and different attention when infected and have to be seriously considered for vaccinations. “The equipment for children in hospitals has to be paediatric-friendly as the sizes are very different for children… ,” says Sheth. Only a trained paediatrician can recognise from non-verbal communication what the child may need, she says

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Meanwhile, there is an 82% shortage of paediatricians in India’s PHCs, and up to 62.8% of positions for paediatricians in community health centres were vacant, as of 2015

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What is the best way to deal with the spread among children?