The Most Positive Cases Of COVID-19 Children In West Java, Who Died From Central Java

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) conducted research and reported that the highest number of confirmed child cases of COVID-19 was in West Java, while the highest number of child deaths due to COVID-19 was in Central Java.

"This research is the first largest data description of child COVID-19 cases in Indonesia in the first wave of COVID-19. The high mortality rate is something that must be prevented by early detection and fast and appropriate treatment," said the General Chairperson of the IDAI Central Management Prof. . Dr. dr. Aman B Pulungan, Sp.A(K), FAAP, FRCPI(Hon) in a virtual press conference in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Sunday, September 26.

IDAI conducted a retrospective study of data on 37,706 confirmed cases of COVID-19 children obtained from reports of cases of COVID-19 in children treated by pediatricians who are members of IDAI during March-December 2020.

The IDAI research report shows 10 regions in Indonesia with the most confirmed child cases of COVID-19, namely West Java with 10,903 cases, and followed by Riau (3,580), Central Java (3,108), West Sumatra (2,600), East Kalimantan (2,033). , East Java (1,884), Bali (1,524), North Sumatra (1,448), DI Yogyakarta (1,275), and Papua (1,220).

In addition, IDAI said there were seven regions with the most confirmed COVID-19 child deaths, namely Central Java, DKI Jakarta, West Java, South Sumatra, East Java, North Sumatra and South Sulawesi.

Based on these data, among children with confirmed COVID-19 treated by pediatricians, the highest mortality rate was in children aged 10-18 years (26 percent), followed by 1-5 years (23 percent), 29 days – less than 12 years. months (23 percent), 0-28 days (15 percent), and 6 years to less than 10 years (13 percent). dr. Antonius H. Pudjiadi, Sp.A(K) said that the uneven detection of COVID-19 cases occurred because the PCR test facilities and health facilities were different, the capacity for testing with PCR at that time in Indonesia was still low and children were not a priority population for testing.

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the IDAI Central Management dr. Hikari Ambara Sjakti, Sp.A(K) said the report showed the case fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 in children in Indonesia, namely 522 deaths from 35,506 suspected cases (CFR 1.4 percent), and 177 deaths. of 37,706 confirmed cases (CFR 0.46 percent).

The IDAI research report states that the CFR of COVID-19 for children in Indonesia is much higher than in other countries, such as the United States and countries in Europe, possibly due to low testing capacity so that many cases go undetected.

The report also revealed that the most common causes of child mortality due to COVID-19 were respiratory failure, sepsis/septic shock, and congenital (comorbid) diseases.

While the most comorbidities in COVID-19 children who died were malnutrition and malignancy, followed by congenital heart disease, genetic disorders, tuberculosis (TB), chronic kidney disease, cerebral palsy, and autoimmune. Meanwhile, 62 children died without comorbidities.

Head of IDAI COVID-19 Task Force dr. Yogi Prawira, Sp.A(K) said that the factors causing respiratory failure and sepsis/septic shock occur in severe COVID-19 conditions, so early and proper monitoring of the condition and management is very important to prevent the occurrence of these two conditions.

IDAI's research results were published in the scientific journal Frontiers in pediatrics, published on September 23, 2021.

Meanwhile, data from the Ministry of Health (Kemkes) at the same time obtained 77,254 confirmed child cases of COVID-19 out of a total of 671,778 cases, which is around 11.5 percent.

This difference in numbers occurs because in this study only cases handled by pediatricians were recorded, while the Ministry of Health also included data from asymptomatic children and the results of contact tracing.