BENGALURU: A survey by the health department has revealed how vulnerable the children were to COVID-19, as it is revealed that over 75 percent of the children who were surveyed were found to be exposed to or infected with COVID-19 previously.
The health department has released the much-awaited report of the COVID-19 pediatric sero survey, "Assessing the burden of COVID-19 in children aged 6 to 14 years in Karnataka, a cross-sectional survey", conducted by the State Surveillance Unit of the department from June 6 to 14, based on the recommendations of Covid Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
The IGG (Immunoglobin G, a type of antibody, which indicates previous infection or vaccination) Test conducted on 5,358 non-vaccinated children has indicated that 75.38% of children were exposed to or infected with COVID-19 virus earlier. The exposure/infection rate among girls was 77.83% while it was 73.02% among boys.
During the study period, only 13.23% (709) of the children were symptomatic and the rest were asymptomatic. Among 5,278 valid samples, only two were positive for RTPCR including one symptomatic from Udupi and one asymptomatic Chitradurga. The genomic sequence among children positive for RTPCR, sublineage of Omicron variants BA5 was found in symptomatic and BA2.10 was found among those asymptomatic.
Among 584 symptomatic but covid negative children sent for an ILI panel of tests (Influenza A, Influenza B, H1N1, H3N2, RSVA and RSVB) to know the incidence of other influenza infections, as many as 32 (6.44%) of them were found positive of Influenza A, H1N1 and one (0.2%) was found positive for Influenza B.
The study was conducted at 232 health facilities in 38 units across the state including BBMP (which was subdivided into 8 units). It was done among 5,358 non-vaccinated children (50.9% boys and 49.1% girls) including 31% aged between 6-8 years, 35.8% between 9-11 years and 33.2% between 12-14 years. 33.3% were from urban slums, 38.3% from rural areas and others from urban non-slums. In all, 93.5% were school-going children.
Division-wise infection rate:
Urban slums - 77.02%
Rural slums - 71.98%
Urban non-slums - 77.96%
76.81% of children were asymptomatic and 65.85% of children were symptomatic.
The highest infection rate among Chikkamagaluru kids
While 74.44% of the children tested in Bengaluru were found to be exposed to or infected with the virus earlier, the highest infection rate was recorded in Chikkamagaluru, as all children tested there were found to be exposed/infected before.