More than 362,000 people have now died of the corona virus in Brazil. This makes it the worst hit country in the world after the US. Yesterday, 3,459 people died in one day from Covid-19. These are not only the elderly. A total of 1,300 babies have also died, writes BBC News.
Many children who become seriously ill or die from corona have underlying conditions, such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease. They are also often overweight, says infectiologist Lohanna Tavares of a children’s hospital in Fortaleza. But that does not apply to all of them. Sometimes young children also have to deal with an extreme immune response to the virus, causing inflammation in vital organs.
It is therefore a misconception that young children are at no risk of dying from Covid, according to research by Dr. Fatima Marinho of the NGO Vital Strategies. Between February 2020 and March 15, 2021, at least 852 children up to the age of 9 years died of Covid-19, including 518 babies under 1. Marinho estimates that it is at least twice as many children, because so little testing is done in this age category. By including death rates from other causes of death, she will reach 2,060 children under 9, including more than 1,300 babies.
“The most vulnerable are black children from poor families. They have the worst access to help and are therefore most at risk of dying,” Marinho told BBC News. Hospitals are less accessible for poorer communities, and they are also more likely to infect each other because many of them live in small houses. “Furthermore, the children are more often malnourished, which is bad for the immune system,” explains the researcher.
