1.5 million children have lost one or two of their guardians to COVID-19

Lancet magazine produced a global study of children who found themselves without parents and grandparents. They lost in a few months these caregivers who were by their side before February or March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.

In the study, they investigate not only the loss of parents, but also of grandparents. Many children were in the care of a grandfather and lost him, others were in the care of their parents and lost them as well. According to research, a million and a half children no longer have a father, or mother, or both, or one of their grandparents.

“We need to react quickly, every 12 seconds a child loses a caregiver to COVID”Lucie Cluver, one of the study’s authors, said a professor at the University of Oxford and the University of Cape Town in a statement.

The figures envisaged by the study It was until April of this year that the death toll stood at 3 million worldwide. Since this month the world must have regretted still a million dead, so the number of children who have lost their guardians increased.

The orphan will continue there and will not go away, although the vaccines help resolve the situation and the virus becomes less deadly. So their authors warn that these children are not forgotten.

Before the pandemic was declared, the number of orphans they were about 140 million in the world. However, there was no model to explain how many children were left without a guardian until the publication of this study. The research pulls data from 21 countries in which 77% of deaths from COVID-19 occur.

The study determines that, out of this million and a half, about a million have reportedly lost one of their parents. In most cases, it was the father. In reality, loss of fathers five times greater than loss of mothers, study finds. 92,000 children lost a caring grandparent and another 428,000 lost a grandparent who did not have custody but resided with the child’s family.

This means that those minors who lose their parents or grandparents are at risk of serious short-term and long-term adverse effects on their health, safety and well-being. They can range from an increased risk of illness, suicide, physical violence, sexual violence to the risk of teenage pregnancy. Therefore, the study makers claim Urgent actions to combat the impact of caregiver deaths on children as part of pandemic response plans.

country by country

Within the 21 countries that were taken into account for the study the most affected were the children of Peru, South Africa or Mexico. The figures take into account the number of children who have lost one or two guardians:

Peru (1 child per 100, with some 98,975 children affected); South Africa (5 children per 1,000, with some 94,625 children affected); Mexico (3 children per 1,000, with a total of 141,132 children affected); Brazil (2 children per 1,000, with a total of 130,363 children affected); Colombia (2 children per 1,000, with a total of 33,293 children affected); Iran (more than 1 in 1,000 children, with a total of 40,996 children affected); United States (more than 1 in 1,000 children, with a total of 113,708 children affected); Russia (1 in 1,000 children, with a total of 29,724 children affected)

On the African continent, for example, orphan rates are closely associated with the HIV / AIDS epidemic and it is likely that some of the children who have lost a parent to COVID-19 have already lost another parent or guardian, which further worsens the situation for these children and increases the need for more intensive and additional support.

The authors also allow us to extract data from Spain where 2,400 children have lost one or both parents and up to 6,200 have lost a guardian, parent or grandparent who lived with them. in the same family unit.

“Studies like this play a crucial role in shedding light on the lasting consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for families and the future mental health and well-being of children around the world. “, according to the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Nora Volkow, who funded, in part, the work.

“While the trauma a child experiences as a result of the loss of a parent or guardian can be devastating, there are evidence-based interventions that can prevent subsequent harmful consequences, such as substance use. , and we need to make sure that children have access to it. Added Vokow, quoted by The Lancet.

With information from Euro News and EFE

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