RSCM Study: Child COVID-19 Patients Are At High Risk Of Death

JAKARTA - A study conducted by the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) Jakarta team reported that pediatric patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19 have a high risk of death when accompanied by comorbidities.

"Most of the pediatric patients who died had comorbidities (comorbidities). Generally, they had more than one comorbid. Most of the dominant ones were patients with kidney failure, then patients with malignancy," said RSCM Team Principal Researcher, Rismala Dewi, quoted by Antara, Sunday, 6 June.

The study was conducted in the period March-October 2020 by examining 490 pediatric patients who were treated for COVID-19.

According to Rismala, the results of the study stated that 40 percent of pediatric patients had a high risk of death.

The results of this study have also been published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases with the title 'Mortality in children with positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test: Lessons learned from a tertiary referral hospital in Indonesia'.

Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Padjadjaran Cissy Kartasasmita said the risk of children being infected and sick from COVID-19 was very low. "This is based on references to existing trusted medical journals," said the pediatrician.

Even if infected, he said, pediatric patients tend to be asymptomatic or generally mild.

Cissy said that it was possible for a child patient to have severe symptoms, enter the intensive care unit, and die from COVID-19.

“Usually due to having other diseases before, such as comorbidities or malnutrition. The mortality rate in other countries is actually quite low even though the results of our study in Indonesia are high,” he said.

Cissy's statement refers to a medical journal entitled Children and Adolescents With SARS-CoV-2 Infection, showing that when infected with COVID-19, children are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.

The journal shows that of the 203 pediatric patients who contracted COVID-19, 54.7 percent did not show symptoms, only 26.1 percent needed treatment due to COVD-19, and the most treated were infants aged less than one year, namely 19, 5 percent of the total cases.

Cissy added that adults play an important role in transmitting the virus to children, while children transmit it to each other at a moderate level. The tendency for high levels of transmission also depends on their age.

"Another medical journal from the Mataram Hospital, NTB with the title Characteristics and Outcomes of Children with COVID-19 in West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia states that the fatality of COVID-19 cases in children is due to late arrivals to health services, the presence of other diseases, and access to health services. difficult health services," he said.

Although the data shows that cases of COVID-19 in children are usually asymptomatic, said Cissy, parents need to continue to take care of their children so they don't get infected with COVID-19.

"I'm worried that children with co-morbidities such as heart, kidney, tuberculosis, asthma, will worsen their condition if they contract COVID-19," said Cissy.

Cissy also emphasized the importance of maintaining children's immune systems by meeting the needs of balanced nutritious food, drinking enough water, getting enough rest, exercising regularly and checking and completing immunizations.