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“Young children are at a higher risk of becoming infected now than at any time during the pandemic,” according to Dr. John Williams, chief of pediatric infectious diseases, UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.
“Contrary to what many have heard, children get sick with COVID, and they can pass the virus on to family, friends and other members of the community,” Williams said.
Williams noted that UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh is seeing an increase in the number of children being treated for COVID-19 in clinics and emergency rooms, some leading to hospitalizations. Williams cited two main reasons for the increase in infections in children – slackened mitigation efforts and the delta variant, which is more contagious and more easily spread.
“It’s nowhere near as bad as some of our colleagues across the country or some children’s hospitals, but we don’t want it to get as bad. One of the main ways not to get so bad is to protect our children with masks and vaccines ”, Williams said.
Williams said the vaccines not only protect young children, such as those under 12 who are not eligible to be vaccinated, but also vulnerable members of the population.
Testing is also an important part of mitigating the virus, and Williams has encouraged anyone with a fever or other respiratory symptoms to get tested.
“Most of the children who get sick and virtually all of the children who are hospitalized are unvaccinated children. And while many have comorbidities of other underlying medical conditions, many of them are otherwise healthy children, ” he said.
Williams joined Dr. Rachel Sackrowitz, Chief Medical Officer, UPMC ICU Service Center and Executive Vice President, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Pitt and UPMC; and Dr. Derek C. Angus, executive vice president and chief innovation officer, UPMC and chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and UPMC, at a Zoom press briefing Wednesday.
Sakrowitz spoke of an increase in hospitalizations in the area of the population eligible for vaccinations, but for some reason did not receive them.
The average age of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 is almost 10 years younger than it was at the peak of the pandemic in December 2020, Sakrowitz said.
“The delta is spreading among people we previously considered less vulnerable. We are seeing a number of healthy people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s being admitted to UPMC and becoming seriously ill, requiring intensive care, ” Sakrowitz said.
“It is worrying. These are people who have few other health concerns and who would otherwise look forward to many healthy years to come. But the overwhelming majority have one thing in common – they are not vaccinated against COVID-19 ”, she added.
Sakrowitz noted that the risk of being hospitalized for people who are not vaccinated is 29 times greater than the risk for those who have been vaccinated.
“In recent weeks, we have seen up to 19 times more unvaccinated patients aged 50 and under admitted to UPMC hospitals compared to those vaccinated. she said.
Sakrowitz shared what healthcare professionals have been through during the pandemic and are once again facing due to the increase in cases.
“”Now we are experiencing this trauma again. And, what makes this wave particularly heartbreaking is that it was largely preventable, ”Sakrowitz said.
Practicing mitigation – vaccinate, mask, distance – was every doctor’s mantra, but for patients who have fallen ill with COVID-19, monoclonal antibodies and other treatments are available to aid recovery, Angus said. .
“So if you get COVID-19, UPMC is here for you”, Angus said. “We don’t want to put you in an intensive care unit or even a regular hospital bed. We will if we have to, but what we want to do is keep you completely out of the hospital.
Angus said that during the pandemic, the hospital system has adapted clinical trials for the traditional way of doing things due to the need to treat coronavirus patients as quickly as possible. In the spring of last year, they launched a reconfiguration of their clinical trials platform.
“(This is) a platform trial that could give all of our patients the best COVID-19 therapies in a coordinated fashion. It has helped us learn at unprecedented speed how to best care for COVID-19 patients ”, Angus said.
Angus cited a few examples of this new approach.
“We are finding that inexpensive steroids help sick hospital patients and even reduce the risk of death. We find that blood thinners are also extremely important in helping moderately ill hospital patients. We settled the debate that hydroxychloroquine just didn’t work ”, he said.
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