What are the symptoms of corona in children and infants? How do we protect them from it?

Dr.. Osama Abu Al-Rub

New warnings have been issued about the danger of the emerging coronavirus, which causes Covid-19 disease, to children. What are the main symptoms in a child? How do we protect our children from corona?

Doctors in Italy and Spain have warned of the risk of developing rare infections in children, possibly linked to the Coronavirus.

The British National Health Service had warned last month that a number of children who had contracted the virus had symptoms similar to "registered in people with toxic shock syndrome and rare Kawasaki disease".

The UK pediatric intensive care association also issued an alert to doctors, noting an increase in the previous three weeks in the number of children suffering from "multiple inflammatory conditions requiring intensive care" in London and throughout the country.

The association said that there is "a growing concern" that symptoms of infections may be linked to Covid-19 in children, or that a different, unknown disease may be behind it.

Kawasaki syndrome
The symptoms were similar to the rare symptoms of Kawasaki syndrome, or toxic shock syndrome, a rare disease affecting children under five.

Kawasaki syndrome causes inflammation of the walls of blood vessels, which weakens the coronary arteries and may lead to aneurysm expansion and heart attack, according to the website published by the German newspaper "Bild".

Children with this new, mysterious condition often have symptoms common between the symptoms of corona and the toxic "Kawasaki" syndrome, from stomach pain, heart inflammation, and "symptoms of the digestive system" that can include vomiting and diarrhea.

How to attack?
Dr. Magdy Omar, a pediatrician in the United States, says - in an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera Net - that the new Corona virus attacks the body through infiltration through the nose, mouth, and eyes into the body, and goes through an incubation period of between one day and two weeks, before settling in the cells of the system Respiratory and these cells begin to clone.

In response to our question: Is the mechanism of work of Corona virus in children different from adults? Dr. Omar - the American Board of Pediatrics and Fellow of the American Pediatric Society - answered that the results of most of the research that indicate the absence of a difference in the mechanism of the virus between the age groups, as the proportion of the virus in children’s respiratory cells is similar to that in adults.

He added that children are exposed to infection with the Corona virus in similar proportions for adults, but recent research indicates that they do not transmit infection in the environment in which they live with the same degree of adult, and children often become infected because of their mixing with infected adults.

He said that children and adolescents up to the age of twenty are the least age groups in terms of complications due to severe corona infection, and in terms of mortality among them.

The severity of the disease and the risk of death among them are more frequent in children under two years of age. It is also noted that complications increase in children with chronic diseases of the heart, lungs and immune system.

However, talk recently began about the emergence of cases of Kawasaki syndrome among previously healthy children who are currently infected with Corona, a disease that affects the heart and its blood vessels chronically.

In response to our question: What are the symptoms of corona in children and infants? The doctor answered that the symptoms are not different in children than in adults, as there is fever, trembling, coughing, shortness of breath, vomiting and diarrhea, but it is less severe than in adults.

And when we asked him: What do the parents do if they suspect that their child has infection with Corona ?, He answered that it is necessary to contact the pediatrician to carry out the examination of the child and to perform a laboratory corona examination on him. Necessity, as well as drinking a lot of fluids so that the child does not become dehydrated due to his poor appetite.

Prevention
and the best way to prevent our children from corona, Dr. Omar said that it has been proven beyond any doubt that social isolation and staying away from people with corona is the most effective way to prevent disease, and parents should take every opportunity to train their children to wash hands and use soap and sterilizers.

It is necessary to guide the child to put a tissue on his mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, and then throwing it in the litter box, and surfaces and toys should be sterilized frequently.

Corona should be explained as a disease for children in a way that suits their age, and to answer their questions in this regard.

And the doctor concluded by saying that "there is great hope in arriving at an anti-coronavirus vaccine in the near future, and its hour should be stressed on the importance of giving this vaccine to our children to prevent this disease."