BENGALURU: After a month’s time of no Covid-19 child deaths being reported in its jurisdiction, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike(BBMP) recorded the death of a three-year-old girl, as per Friday’s health bulletin.
The three-year-old was a resident of Hosaballi and had symptoms of Influenza-Like Illness (ILI), fever and cough, and was admitted to Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) in Bengaluru on September 6. However the child passed away on September 9.
The child had a cold, cough and sore throat since September 1 and was brought to hospital with severe respiratory distress. Following a Covid-19 test, the child was intubated and admitted in the ICU. Both the lungs showed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The child’s condition deteriorated and, on September 8, she developed bradycardia (slow heart rate) and CPR resuscitation was done. But the child could not be revived.
Prior to this, on July 31, the death of an eight-year-old female child, who had steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome and was on antibiotics and immunosuppressive agents, was reported at Vani Vilas Hospital. She also dealt with generalised oedema. She developed respiratory syndrome and after a Covid-19 test, she was shifted to Victoria Hospital on August 1. Her distress and oedema worsened, and she required six litres of oxygen. She had to then be shifted to ICU, and despite multiple attempts to save, her condition worsened and she died on August 4 with hypoxic respiratory failure.
On August 3, a 14-year-old Covid-positive child, who had symptoms of ILI, fever with hypertension and was a case of chronic kidney disease stage 5, was referred from Sagar Hospital to Victoria Hospital. She was on a ventilator, but developed arrhythmia (irregular heart beat) and died.
So far, in Karnataka, the number of deaths in the 0-9 age group has been the lowest at 65, followed by 93 deaths in the 10-19 age group and 780 deaths in the 20-29 age group. The highest number of deaths are in the 60-69 age group at 10,805.
BBMP Commissioner-Health Randeep D said, “Most of the cases of child deaths are those with comorbidities and slightly late admissions due to which their condition deteriorated. However, so far, we had minimal cases of deaths in this age group.”
A member of the pediatric expert committee said, “The number of cases of children testing positive is declining and the mortality rate among children has been low. Most of the children come down with mild cases of Covid-19 and recover soon. However, parents need to be watchful as and when they develop any symptoms and report at the earliest.”