FULL RESEARCH ON IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON CHILDREN IN AFRICA YET TO COMMENCE -DR NANA GASIE

Dr. Nana Esi Gasie, Paediatrician at Effiankwanta Regional Hospital, has asserted that Africa is yet to acertain the full impact of COVID-19 on children.

According to her it is a known fact by world health organisation that older adults between the aged of 60 and above as well as individuals of any age with serious medical conditions such as asthma, lung disease, diabetes, hypertention, cancer, HIV and other chronic conditions may be at high risk.

Speaking to Osikani Frimpong Manso this morning on “Adekye Mu Nsem” on Spice Fm 91.9 , she said that with regards to children, the observation is that, their strong immune system makes it difficult for them to approach the deteriorating stage of the COVID-19. Children normally get mild forms of the symptoms.

“For children they are able to survive the COVID-19, but for the adult in their 60s and above, it is a worrying trend especially for those with chronic health conditions.

The difference is that children do not get to the final stage of the COVID-19 complications which is the difficult in breathing.

We are also yet to recieve the gender distribution from the Ghana health Service”.

Answering questions about the breast feeding as a possible mode of transmition, she said that there is no clear direction for breast feeding for nursing mothers.

“There is currently no clear direction to determine as to whether breast feeding is a mode of transmittion for COVID-19 or not, but I will advice for the breast feed to be extracted into a cup so that it can be given to the child.

She went ahead to advice parents not to allow the negative implication of COVID-19 to have negative psychological impact them.

She urged parents to moniter their children and ensure that they are following the basic precautionary measures.

Story by Kwame Offei