COVID-19 changed the world overnight and remains a significant concern for children and adolescents with high-risk conditions. Data from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows just how dangerous this virus still remains, especially for children who are considered high-risk.
Despite being preventable, COVID-19 continues to cause serious illness, hospitalization, and death in children. The latest numbers underscore that no child is immune to the risks.
Children 6 months to 23 months are at higher risk for hospitalization
58.9% of children hospitalized for COVID-19 had one or more underlying medical conditions, including asthma/reactive airway disease, neurologic disorders, obesity, chronic lung disease excluding asthma, and feeding tube dependence
25.2% had severe disease requiring ICU care, which may include ventilatory support and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
96.2% of children hospitalized for COVID-19 were not fully vaccinated
Dr. Teresa Whited, a pediatric nurse expert with the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, talks about why COVID “isn’t just a bad cold,” and that COVID prevention isn’t just about a few missed school days - it’s about saving lives. With most pediatric COVID severe illness and deaths occurring among unvaccinated children, experts urge parents and caregivers to get the COVID vaccine now.
So what are some of the symptoms of COVID and why is it so dangerous for children and adolescents?
So, like other respiratory illnesses, COVID can have common symptoms such as fever, cough, nasal congestion, sore throat, fatigue, headache, some body aches, sometimes nausea or vomiting.
One thing that's kind of unique to COVID is, especially in adolescents, you can have a loss of taste and smell and a lot of children do experience these cold like symptoms, but for some, it can be a much more significant disease process, leading to hospitalization and ICU admissions and really bad outcomes.
What is causing that? Are there more serious complications for children with underlying medical conditions like asthma, neurologic disorders and obesity if they get COVID?
Yes. Those who have moderate to severe asthma, chronic lung disease, obesity, diabetes, neurologic disorders, congenital heart disease, are immunocompromised, or those who are considered medically complex.
Maybe they have more than one illness, or maybe they need some help with feedings or other things. Those children, and especially those younger children, like six months to 23 months of age, we know are at higher risk for hospitalization and at risk for things like respiratory failure, myocarditis, a disease process called MISC, which affects multiple organs within the body. And even long COVID in a lot of cases.
So at what age should children start receiving the COVID vaccine and should it be administered every year?
Every year we recommend that you get the vaccine, just like your flu vaccine. It should be an annual thing because new strengths of the virus come up each year and the vaccine gets those new strains put in them to protect you from the latest strains.
The recommendation is that all children six months of age and older should receive the COVID vaccine, but especially those who have high risk conditions. Kids or infants that are younger than six months of age who are not eligible to receive the vaccine can still be protected by the mom getting their vaccine during pregnancy or following pregnancy. And those close contacts or family members that are going to be around the baby getting vaccinated provides that negative protection.
Some people are concerned that getting the COVID vaccine might be worse than coming down with the disease. So what can you tell us about that?
Absolutely, the COVID vaccine is safe. We know that the side effects are very mild in most people, typically just some mild, short-lived side effects that include maybe a little bit of soreness at the site, some fatigue, a low grade fever, and it usually only lasts just a day or two.
We know that the risk of COVID may be mild or it may be more significant and there's no way to identify those children who are going to have good outcomes or bad outcomes. But we definitely know that those who are at higher risk are at more risk for those outcomes.
Where can we go for more information?
You can go to the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners’ website. They have lots of information on the COVID-19 vaccine and the disease process as well as other vaccine preventable diseases.
Interview sponsor - National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP).
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