Ecuador studies starting to vaccinate children under 3 years of age against covid

During the last quarter, pediatric healthcare services have been filled with patients infected with COVID-19. This has been called the fifth wave pandemic represents a new peak in global contagion statistics, which is caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages of Omicron and which also attacks children under 3 years of age.

In Ecuador, this population is precisely the part of society that is not included in the vaccination schemes. For this reason, health authorities are already evaluating the possibility of establishing mechanisms to immunize patients at this age.

Although among the main characteristics of these two subvariants are that they are more contagious than the original version of the disease and that they even increase the risk of reinfection, however, experts assure that they do not produce greater severity.

According to a study conducted in South Africa, the BA.4 and BA.5 variants registered the highest reproduction capacity, similar to measles, and it is currently the most infectious viral disease.

for the British Natureone of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals, to date, the latest type of omicron appears to cause fewer deaths and hospitalizations than its older cousins ​​from Wuhan, and later variants, alpha, beta, gamma, and delta.

The Baca Ortiz Children’s Hospital Quito reported 422 suspected cases in June and July, while 82 infected patients were confirmed, half of whom were children under 3 years of age. Of these, the remaining 50% were unvaccinated or had chronic illnesses. For this reason, the health authorities insist on the benefits of vaccination after the relaxation that has occurred in the population when accessing the first dose of immunization and not approaching to receive their booster dose.

The symptoms of unvaccinated children are usually very acute: high and persistent fever during the first days, cough, runny nose and diarrhea are the warning signs. Some are even unable to eat due to severe sore throats and must be hospitalized for intravenous fluids for an average of four days. At Baca Ortiz, some children needed oxygen.

According to experts, in general, these viral variants show no signs of difference from the omicron version or even the first version of the disease. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish between the different types of infection.

For the French National Public Health Agencythe symptoms of people infected with BA.4 and BA.5 may be: cough, runny nose, sore throat, fatigue, headache, body aches and, as in the other omicron subvariants, it is unlikely that the patient lose your sense of taste and smell, or be unable to breathe, compared to the effects with the delta variant or other types of coronavirus.

As with the BA.2 subvariant, the current BA.4 and BA.5 show a short incubation period of approximately two days, while the duration of clinical symptoms averages 7 days for BA.4 and BA.4 cases. BA.5, reported the French health institution.

In 2020, When the pandemic began, hospitalizations were concentrated in adult patients, but the registry of pediatric patients increased when the omicron variant began to circulate in January of this year.

A new study published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that COVID-19 that is long-lasting, or whose symptoms persist four weeks after infection, also affects children and adolescents. As an important measure to prevent the spread of the virus and its long-term effects, the American institution recommends the vaccination of all children older than 6 months which is the minimum age for vaccination recommended by specialists.

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