NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday issued detailed guidelines for treating children with Covid, emphasising that most of the drugs used for adults are not recommended for kids. Medicines like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, favipiravir, doxycycline and azithromycin prescribed to adult patients have not been tested on children, it said.
However, it allowed the restricted use of Remdesivir. Once vaccines are approved for children, those with co-morbidities and those having severe symptoms would be prioritised for inoculation, the guidelines said.
“Children have less severe disease than adults. In the majority, the infection is asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. It is uncommon to have moderate to severe Covid among healthy children,” it said.
The government called for a combined effort from the public and private sectors to increase facilities to treat children. “A combined effort from the private and public sector is needed to handle any surge (in cases) in the future after the withdrawal of the lockdown over the next three to four months. The basic principles of equity and dignity of care should be followed.”
It suggested designating specific areas in Covid facilities for pediatric care, adding parents should be allowed to accompany the child. “For children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome who test negative for acute Covid, care has to be provided by the existing pediatric facilities,” it said.
Remdesivir was earlier not recommended for children
Earlier, the Centre had said that antiviral drug Remdesivir was not recommended for children. It had said
steroids should be used to treat only moderately severe and critically ill patients in hospital settings. At the
same time, it recommended a six minuted walk test to assess “cardiopulmonary exercise tolerance”.