COVID-19: Infections and hospitalizations of young people in the United States increased due to the Delta variant

United States This week represented nearly 1,500 children hospitalized by COVID-19, the highest number to date in the pandemic, which shows how the Delta variant can affect any age group. This is the predominant variant in this country, with 93% of new coronavirus cases.

According to the records of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC), between August 20 and 26, an average of 330 minors were admitted to hospitals each day with COVID-19. And three weeks ago, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Francis collins He noted that the United States is paying “a terrible price” given the rapid increase in cases, especially among the unvaccinated.

“Almost all of the deaths are among unvaccinated people. And now it’s younger people including boys and girls», He alerted. “The highest number of girls and boys so far in the entire pandemic – he said – is currently in hospital, 1,450 children in hospital for COVID-19.” Many of them, under the age of 12, were not vaccinated. “But the rest of us, over 12, could have done a better job,” he said.

Although he indicated that they do not have “hard data” which suggests that the delta variant is more serious for the infant population, he admitted that he heard the concern of pediatricians because in this new peak of contagion of the disease “the boys and girls who are in the hospital are more numerous and are more seriously ill.” Asked about the next school year, he asked families to think about chin straps as a “life-saving medical device” and not as a “political declaration or an attack on your freedoms”, And believed that its use will prevent epidemics that force a return to distance learning.

“This virus we are facing is now changing the rules of the game, because it is very easily transmitted from person to person. Half of the children we recently admitted are under the age of 2, ”said Dr. Mark Kline, chief medical officer at the New Orleans Children’s Hospital. Doctors say it’s crucial to protect children from the Delta variant, not only for their health and to keep face-to-face classes going, but also to help prevent the more aggressive variants from pushing back across the country. In recent months, the more contagious variant, Alpha, has been replaced by an even more contagious variant, Delta, as the dominant strain of coronavirus in the United States. In just two months, the delta has grown from 3% to more than 93% of coronavirus samples sequenced in the United States, according to the CDC.

“The cases of COVID-19 in children have increased exponentially and the long-term complications of COVID-19 can be significant for children, even for some who initially had mild symptoms or no symptoms,” the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In the week ending August 26, more than 200,000 new cases of COVID-19 in children have been reportedsays the AAP. That’s “a five-fold increase last month, from around 38,000 cases the week ending July 22 to nearly 204,000 last week.”

Mild to severe COVID and long-term sequelae

“Pediatricians should be on the lookout for residual or long-term COVID-19 problems, such as respiratory symptoms, which can last three months or more; heart problems, including a type of heart inflammation known as myocarditis; cognitive problems such as “brain fog”; headache; fatigue and mental health issues, ”AAP explained, adding that children who had moderate or severe illness may be at higher risk for heart disease later on.

“In some cases, children who start with mild symptoms or even without coronavirus end up hospitalized weeks or months later with a condition called MIS-C, Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. MIS-C is a rare but serious disease associated with COVID-19 in which different parts of the body become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs ”, explains the CDC. This happens when the virus prompts your body to produce an immune response against your own blood vessels, ”which can cause inflammation of the blood vessels, the pediatrician said. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

At first, children with MIS-C do not have severe symptoms. “Usually children are accidentally detected to have (coronavirus). A family member was infected, a friend was infected, so they did a PCR test. And they tested positive … So they’re fine. Then a month passes and they develop a high fever. And evidence of lung, liver, kidney or heart damage. That’s when they come to our hospital, ”Offit said.

According to official data, at least 4,404 cases of MIS-C between February 2020 and July 2021, including 37 deaths. 99% of patients with MIS-C had tested positive for the coronavirus and the remaining 1% had been in contact with an infected person. The median age of MIS-C patients was 9 years.

“The CDC is working to learn more about why some children and adolescents develop MIS-C after having COVID-19 or having been in contact with someone with COVID-19, while others don’t, ”the CDC says.

Until, Only the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNtech has received authorization in the United States to be placed in minors aged 12 to 17 years.. The rest of the vaccines can only be given to people over 18 years of age, although it is expected that at all times the laboratory Modern receives authorization to be received by teenagers.

a FDA independent advisory committee (Federal Food and Drug Administration) on vaccines is Analyzing seriously approving vaccines to be placed in children over six months of age in 2022.

“Based on what we now know about MIS-C, the best way to protect your child is to take daily steps to prevent your child and the whole family from contracting the virus. The best steps parents can take include immunizing and immunizing children 12 and older, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.

“It may happen that if one of the parents is fully vaccinated, there is a small possibility that they will contract an asymptomatic post-vaccination infection and pass the virus on to their children. That is why it is a good idea for all parents of young children to wear masks in closed public spaces, ”said specialist Walensky.

“But the best way to protect unvaccinated children is to surround them with vaccinated people.», He concluded.

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