Reluctance to test for COVID-19 among the adults often lead to the death of children Debiyantoro, a hotel repairman in Indonesia has lost his daughter Alesha due to COVID-19 who has been only 22 months old. 10 family members have suffered from the COVID like symptoms. However, no one has gone through a test prior to the death of Alesha. Following to the hospitalization of Alesha, she has died just one day after.
In Indonesia, lots of children have become a prey of COVID-19. Increase in the number further can be seen from the month of June as Delta variant has started to spread within the country. Till now, 1245 children have died of COVID-19 in Indonesia. Some of these kids may not be even a year old.
Researchers have pointed out on why more number of children is dying in developing countries. One of the reasons behind this occurrence may be poverty.
From wealthy countries, a notion has developed that children are unlikely to become a victim of COVID-19. In United States of America and Europe, 1 in the 1500 children has died of COVID-19 that is younger 18 years.
However, different story can be noticed in the developing countries. By the Pediatric Society, it has been stated that 1 among 88 children have died of COVID-19 in Indonesia. Some of the cases have not been counted also. Therefore, numbers are definitely higher here as far as COVID-19 deaths are concerned in the children than western countries.
Issues of undercounting have worsened in the last couple of months after the appearance of COVID-19 delta cases especially. In Indonesia, one fifth of the population is only partly vaccinated. Therefore, more contagious variant like Delta has been wreaking havoc in Indonesia at the moment.
COVID-19 death among children has reached to 2000 in Brazil where it can be counted at 1500 in India. Numbers are definitely higher than Indonesia. However, overall death in these countries is higher as well.
Several other contributors can be seen behind the high number of child’s death. It can be due to multigenerational families that have been living within cramped area, air pollution, lack of information, poor nutrition, diagnosis and treatment at the proper time.
Dr. Marissa Dolhinoff from Sao Paulo University Medical School, Brazil has said “The first thing to know is that socioeconomic inequality is a very important factor for mortality.”
In case the children living under poverty then they tend to suffer from several underlying conditions such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and malnutrition. Due to air pollution, respiration issues such as asthma and tuberculosis can be encountered also. Coronavirus also attacks the lungs. Therefore, it becomes more difficult to survive. In Indonesia, 6% children died of COVID-19 have been suffering from tuberculosis also.
