COVID-19: 21M Cases, 765K Deaths Globally, Most Vulnerable at Risk - Paper Example

COVID-19 pandemic is a presently ongoing global epidemic that was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 (Fauci et al.). In January 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Since the outbreak was announced in December, over 21million cases have been positively confirmed in a total of 188 regions globally, with up to 765,000 reported deaths (World Health Organization 2020). The most vulnerable demographics for fatality from COVID-19 are young kids and elders beyond the age of 65 years. However, studies on the impacts of coronavirus infections and epidemiology continue to show lower propensities for these viruses to cause serious complications. Nonetheless, some complications have been observed in pediatric cases. This brief literature review thereby looks to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pediatric emergency department (Liguoro et al.).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

According to the World Health Organization, critically-ill children admitted to hospitals often die within 24hours of admission (World Health Organization 2017). To counter this worrying trend, the WHO recommends the triage system to ensure prompt hospitalization and initial response for the children. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 virus, most health experts have reported a fall in the admission of children in the Pediatrics Emergency Department (PED). The study by Liguoro et al. (2020), for instance, reported a 73% drop in PED admissions between 2019 and 2020. Furthermore, a different study by Paridon (2020) backs the study by Liguoro et al. (2020) by reporting a 68% drop in PED visits in 2020. The drop in PED visits is highly credited to the lockdown and social distancing (among other) measures that have been enforced to lower the spread of the virus. While the place of the children in spreading the SARS-CoV-2 is unclear, health experts report an unprecedented reduction in other illnesses among the children (Rowley; Scaramuzza et al.). This fascinating finding regarding the reduction of pediatric diseases during the COVID-19 global pandemic offers an interesting alternative for analyzing the longer-term sustained reductions in pediatric emergency department admission (Rowley).

Scaramuzza et al. (2020) conducted a similar study in Italy on the reduced patterns of white codes in the PED and proposed that such decreases may have resulted from the mitigation requirements for the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysts claimed that an increase in isolation and distancing from crowded environments allowed the children to avoid non-relevant pathologies that were previously viewed in the ED. It is thereby safe to presume that the global pandemic has come as a blessing in disguise for the children as it has allowed them to avoid various contagious infections.

Works Cited

Fauci, Anthony S., et al. “Covid-19 — Navigating the Uncharted.” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 382, no. 13, 2020, pp. 1268–1269., doi:10.1056/nejme2002387.

Liguoro, Ilaria, et al. “The Impact of COVID-19 on a Tertiary Care Pediatric Emergency Department.” Research Square, 2020, doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-54932/v1.

Paridon, Bradley van. “Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown, School Closures on Pediatric Emergency Department Visits.” Infectious Disease Advisor, Infectious Disease Advisor, 22 June 2020, www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/home/topics/covid19/impact-of-covid-19-lockdown-school-closures-on-pediatric-emergency-department-visits/.

Rowley, Anne H. “Understanding SARS-CoV-2-Related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children.” Nature Reviews Immunology, vol. 20, no. 8, 2020, pp. 453–454., doi:10.1038/s41577-020-0367-5.

Scaramuzza, Andrea, et al. “Changing Admission Patterns in Paediatric Emergency Departments during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 105, no. 7, 2020, doi:10.1136/archdischild-2020-319397.

World Health Organization. “Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 2020, www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019.

World Health Organization. “Paediatric Emergency Triage, Assessment and Treatment: Care of Critically-Ill Children.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 4 May 2017, www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/paediatric-emergency-triage-update/en/