Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Of the many impacts of COVID‐19 on contemporary healthcare is the rapid and overwhelming shift to remote telehealth (TH) service. The precise effect of TH on treatment is yet unknown, and the possible child/adult differences are an essential point of clarification for the utility of TH services and efforts to improve upon them.The current study considers data reflecting pre‐, during‐, and post‐COVID‐19 lockdown over the first six months of 2020.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has collapsed health systems worldwide. In adults, the virus causes severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), while in children the disease seems to be milder, although a severe multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) has been described. The aim was to describe and compare the characteristics of the severe COVID-19 disease in adults and children.

The Korean government collects and releases sociodemographic information about people infected with COVID-19, their travel histories, and whether or not the patients wore masks. Korean mothers then upload this information on the boards of online groups called “mom cafes.” Based upon a digital ethnography of 15 “mom cafes,” this article examines how Korean mothers understand the travel histories of virus patients and explore the relationships between morality and materiality in the context of infectious disease surveillance.

Young children (ages 1–5) living in rural Virginia attend fewer well child visits than their urban counterparts. Variability in well child visit attendance rates can be detected using an estimate of the developed land in the zip code. Covid-19 may further impact rural children's access to developmental screenings because of limited access to telemedicine. Children should attend well child visits (WCVs) during early childhood so that developmental disorders may be identified as early as possible, so treatment can begin. The aim of this research was to determine if rurality impacts access to WCV during early childhood, and if altering rurality measurement methods impacts outcomes.

This report presents key indicators on health and health systems in 33 Latin America and the Caribbean countries. This first Health at a Glance publication to cover the Latin America and the Caribbean region was prepared jointly by OECD and the World Bank. Analysis is based on the latest comparable data across almost 100 indicators including equity, health status, determinants of health, health care resources and utilisation, health expenditure and financing, and quality of care. The editorial discusses the main challenges for the region brought by the COVID‑19 pandemic, such as managing the outbreak as well as mobilising adequate resources and using them efficiently to ensure an effective response to the epidemic. An initial chapter summarises the comparative performance of countries before the crisis, followed by a special chapter about addressing wasteful health spending that is either ineffective or does not lead to improvement in health outcomes so that to direct saved resources where they are urgently needed.

In comparison with adults, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection in children has a milder course. The management of children with suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) needs to be appropriately targeted. A hub-and-spoke system was designed, to provide healthcare indications based on the use of telemedicine and stringent admission criteria, to coordinate local stakeholders and to disseminate information.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the delivery of care for chronic neurological diseases globally. As requirements for physical distancing have led to restrictions on the availability of health care services, many countries have adapted methods of telemedicine to sustain care access for patients, while making difficult decisions surrounding which aspects of direct clinical care can be deferred and the time span acceptable for delaying chronic medical care. For people with epilepsy, issues such as determining criteria for what constitutes urgent management, managing the risk of increased seizures in the setting of illness, as well as ensuring a stable medication supply, have all been raised as critical concerns during this pandemic.

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has put economies across the globe in an unexpected hibernation as governments of many countries have announced weeks-long lockdown to flatten the curve of infection. It cannot be debunked that the lockdown was deemed as ‘the essential vaccine’ in the current times, but unfortunately, it is coming with a critical trade-off . The trade-off, not of economic costs vs human life, which has been much debated and documented but of one human life vs another. Specifically, in case of India, with a population of 1.3 billion, of which more than two-third are situated in rural settlements, this outbreak has become quite intimidating as the already limited health infrastructure has come under severe pressure to cater to the patients with the contagion.

In response to the SARS-COV-2 threat Malawi has closed schools and universities. As a result, pupils risk losing their only good meal a day, shelter from household violence and stipends, delaying graduation and their first job in life. Moreover, Malawi blood transfusion service depends on schools, colleges, places of worship, and workplaces. Decreased blood stocks will increase preventable mortality.

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has disrupted immunization programs around the globe, potentially increasing life‐threatening vaccine‐preventable diseases. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries, which are still struggling to eradicate wild poliovirus. All vaccination campaigns in Pakistan were suspended in April due to the COVID‐19 outbreak, leading 40 million children to miss out on polio vaccination. Like the climate crisis, the COVID‐19 pandemic could be regarded as a child‐rights crisis because it could have life‐threatening impact over children, who need immunization, now and in the long‐term.

Pneumonia and diarrhea are leading killers of children under the age of five, claiming the lives of more young children globally than any other infectious disease. The impacts of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic aggravate these heath risks. International Vaccine Access Center's (IVAC) annual Pneumonia & Diarrhea Progress Report evaluates the progress across 10 high-impact indicators outlined in the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD) in the 15 countries with the greatest burden of under-five pneumonia and diarrhea deaths.

COVID-19 can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia, and other important complications, including death, especially in high risk groups.Among pediatric patients, according to the literature, COVID-19 appears to be less severe than in adults and the elderly, and approximately 90% of pediatric patients are diagnosed with asymptomatic, mild, or moderate disease.Even so, 6.7% of cases may be severe in children with serious underlying conditions such as neurologic and neurodevelopmental disorders.4 Respiratory complications are a major cause of death in the chronic neuropediatric population.

The disruptive effects of pandemics on the delivery of health services is increasingly recognised as a global threat to maternal and child health. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the need to not only rapidly develop health-care innovations but to also make them equitably available. In this context, innovations that contribute to maintaining coverage of essential interventions, such as by facilitating task shifting, simplifying service delivery, or both, are crucial. Therefore, this paper argues that the case for a dedicated financing mechanism for scaling up innovations in women's, children's, and adolescents' health is stronger than ever.

In health outcomes terms, the poorest countries stand to lose the most from these disruptions. In this paper, we make the case for a rational approach to public sector health spending and decision making during and in the early recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on ethics and equity principles, it is crucial to ensure that patients not infected by COVID-19 continue to get access to healthcare and that the services they need continue to be resourced. We present a list of 120 essential non-COVID-19 health interventions that were adapted from the model health benefit packages developed by the Disease Control Priorities project.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created extraordinary challenges and prompted remarkable social changes around the world. The effects of COVID-19 and the public health control measures that have been implemented to mitigate its impact are likely to be accompanied by a unique set of consequences for specific subpopulations living in low-income countries that have fragile health systems and pervasive social-structural vulnerabilities. This paper discusses the implications of COVID-19 and related public health interventions for children and young people living in Eastern and Southern Africa. Actionable prevention, care, and health promotion initiatives are proposed to attenuate the negative effects of the pandemic and government-enforced movement restrictions on children and young people.