Covid-19 can be deadly in children

Detroit-Skyler Herbert loved dressing up and performing. She loved going to kindergarten. She started reading at the age of four.

“She was able to take over the room,” said her grandmother, Leona Pannell Herbert.

About a month ago, Skylar started complaining of headaches. Within days, she was admitted to the outskirts of Detroit where she was diagnosed with the new coronavirus-caused disease, covid-19, and subsequently with a rare form of meningitis. Her brain began to swell and she was placed on a ventilator. On Sunday, a 5-year-old child surrounded by doctors and her family became the first child to die of covid-19 in Michigan and one of several childhood deaths in the United States.

Skyler’s death is a heartbreaking exception to the pandemic, devastating the elderly and those with underlying illnesses and saving a great deal to their children. She was young and had no known underlying illness. Her death is a reminder that the coronavirus can endanger people of all ages.

In Michigan, approximately 1% of the 32,967 reported covid-19 cases occur in patients younger than 20 years, and the average age of coronavirus patients dying in Michigan is 74 years, according to state statistics .

Her story denies the “myth now that children can’t get it”, her father, Ebby Herbert, said. The family agreed that the hospital would use Skyler’s organization to study covid-19, her mother said.

Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the nation’s leading pediatric health centers, reported a surge in hospitalization for covid-19 last week when as many as 13 patients were hospitalized for the disease. In the course of the pandemic, Boston Children accepted 25 children, said Michael Agus, director of medical emergency care at the hospital. By Monday, the Boston Children’s Hospital had had 11 covid-19 cases and three received intensive care.

Similar to the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, the district’s Children’s National Hospital reported a steady increase in the number of cases. Doctors from both hospitals say they believe these increases correlate with a surge in cases in the wider population of these cities, although the number of infected adults is still higher in children who test positive. Less than the number.

Julia Sammons, director of medicine at the Department of Infection Control at Philadelphia Hospital, said less than 10% of children tested positive in the hospital needed inpatient care. She said about 5% of hospitalized patients experience severe symptoms. At the Seattle Children’s Hospital, which has been tracking the virus since late February, 1% of tested children have the virus. According to Janet Engrund, an infectious disease expert, some of them experienced severe symptoms.

“It’s a small number,” Englund said. “Until it becomes your child.”

Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and empirical evidence from several physicians at some of the nation’s top children’s hospitals, suggest that children are generally not seriously affected by the virus.

As of April 6, when CDC published its last comprehensive report on coronaviruses and children, 2% of confirmed covid-19 cases occurred in people under the age of 18. This is about 2% of infectious diseases in children.

Children who test positive are likely to experience severe symptoms at a much lower rate than adults.

“COVID-19 children are relatively hospitalized and experience fewer fever, cough, and shortness of breath than adults,” the CDC wrote in its April 6 study. As of Tuesday, CDC data show that two children aged 1 to 4 died, one child aged 5 to 14 died, and 17 children aged 15 to 24. Was included.

Disease trackers said that more people in the United States believed they were infected with the virus than was shown in the data, but experts said that figures for childhood mortality were probably among children. He said it truly reflects the most serious sacrifice.

“I think we’re seeing sick children. I don’t think there are many sick children at home unaware of their health care system,” Agus said. “Are there any children who have survived this infection with almost no symptoms? Sure. It seems very likely, and so was in other countries.”

Robert Posada, an associate professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Medical Education at the Mount Sinai Clavis Children’s Hospital in New York, said the hospital accepted about 20 covid-19 children and hasn’t seen a significant increase recently. Told. He said most of those children who were sick enough to need hospital care deal with the underlying condition, something echoed by a doctor in a pediatric ward elsewhere. it was done. At the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, Sammons said that about 25% of patients who test positive for covid-19 suffer from asthma. On Mount Sinai, the numbers are similar.

“I say more than half of those patients have some underlying illness. Some of them are cancer patients, 2 people with diabetes. 1 patient who is a transplant recipient, at least 1 or 2 people. “Posada said.

However, some children may not be tracked clearly or easily. In Michigan, 266 cases of covid-19 were identified in children and adolescents as of Monday. Bob Wheaton, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said 147 were at home, 23 were hospitalized, and 96 were unknown.

Although Skyler did not suffer from the underlying illness, he was at higher risk of contracting the virus because it was classified in another category. Skyler is African-American and CDC data show that black patients account for 33% of the reported cases. Census data show that 13.4% of the population of the United States is black. And Skyler’s parents have a job that forces them to continue working outside the home during the pandemic.

Skyler lived in one of the most prevalent areas of the coronavirus for 25 years, along with his mother, Bond Bondria Herbert, a Detroit police officer, and his father, Ebby Herbert, a Detroit firefighter.

“When I talk about Skyler’s story, it comes to my mind. Her parents are the first responders, and the first responders are worried about infecting people at home.” Covid-19 Power to racial disparities related to. The task force will be dedicated to Skyler’s memory, he said at a briefing Monday.

“They are at the forefront and they have served with honor and integrity,” said Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic Party’s Governor of Michigan. “They didn’t deserve their children with this virus. Nobody.”

Skyler’s death was grieved at Facebook’s Detroit, home and fire department.

“Skyler touched our hearts with her cheerful spirits and brightened our Sundays with a smile,” wrote The City of God Church in a Facebook post shared more than 120 times by Monday night. .

“My daughter was the giver, sunlight and light. She gave me a sucker for whatever she had,” said her mother, La Bondria Herbert. Her father, Ebby Herbert, said:

Her parents spent Tuesday trying to understand how a funeral for a lively girl in Detroit would take place in a pandemic. They haven’t given the answer. But they want to let the world know that Skyler’s life and death serve as a message to take covid-19 seriously.

“We just want to let the world know that this can happen to anyone,” Herbert said. “This may have been your child.”

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Jane reported from Washington.