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COVID-19 killed more than 200 young children, Indonesian pediatricians suspect

More than 200 newborns and children under 5 years of age are believed to have died from COVID-19 in Indonesia as the virus has devastated the country’s fragile health system.

Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta, Indonesia
Fri, June 26, 2020

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COVID-19 killed more than 200 young children, Indonesian pediatricians suspect A mother helps her son get tested for COVID-19 at the Kampung Rambutan terminal in Jakarta on June 4. OMore than 200 newborns and children under 5 years of age are believed to have died from COVID-19 in Indonesia as the virus has devastated the country’s fragile health system. (JP/P.J. Leo)

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ore than 200 children including newborns and those under 5 years of age are believed to have died from COVID-19 in Indonesia as the virus has devastated the country’s fragile health system.

The Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI) revealed on Thursday that at least 1,543 children in Indonesia had tested positive for COVID-19 since the country announced its first coronavirus case in March. Thirty-six of them had died of the disease.

Meanwhile, 6.123 children were categorized under the PDP status, which refers to people that have COVID-19 symptoms but have not been tested for the virus, 204 of them had died.

"The data is devastating,” IDAI chairman Aman Bhakti Pulungan said in a meeting with House of Representatives Commission X, which oversees education.

He noted that the high number of child deaths from the disease that mostly kills the elderly was mainly due to diarrhea and pneumonia, as well as insufficient time for medical personnel to save them.

“Four of five children come to the hospital with gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea,” he said, adding that they would report every child with diarrhea symptoms as a PDP case.

In the most recent case last week, Aman said, an 8-month-old baby died in a remote area before being hospitalized. The baby had asthma and a low blood sugar level.

“There is inequality of data and health services. We cannot merely look at the services in Jakarta but must also look at other regions," he said.

The death of a 40-day-old baby was reported by the COVID-19 task force in Pamekasan, East Java, on Monday. The baby had tested positive for COVID-19 with fever, cough and respiratory problems and is believed to have contracted the virus from neighbors who visited weeks ago.

Read also: 40-day-old baby dies in East Java after contracting COVID-19 from visitors

“We don’t lack protection of children, but we lack awareness that they could fall sick and die. We must protect those who are born during the pandemic," Aman said.

No deaths among children have been reported so far in neighboring Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand.

In Europe and the United States, meanwhile, doctors have seen a sharp surge of a severe immune disorder in children linked to COVID-19. At least five under-18s in the UK, three in the US and one in France have died from the syndrome.

An analysis by researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in The Lancet Global Health journal in May, estimated an additional 1.2 million maternal and under-5 deaths could occur in just six months due to a reduction in routine health service coverage and an increase in child wasting based on the worst of three scenarios in 118 low- and middle-income countries.

Based on the analysis, UNICEF estimates an additional 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weaken health systems and disrupt routine services.

“Under a worst-case scenario, the global number of children dying before their fifth birthday could increase for the first time in decades,” said UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore.

As of Thursday, around 7.9 percent of 50,187 people found to be COVID-19-positive in Indonesia are children below 17 years of age, which would mean at least 3,964 children are infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the country, according to the official COVID-19 figures.

Children, according to the official figures, account for 1.6 percent of the 2,620 people confirmed to have died of COVID-19, which would mean about 42 children have died with the virus.

According to a preliminary analysis by the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, many children are infected with the virus because of poor hygiene or an unhealthy lifestyle, indicators of which include failure to frequently wash one’s hands with soap, to eat fruits and vegetables in sufficient amounts and do daily physical exercise.

Read also: Five percent of Indonesia's COVID-19 cases are children: Ministry

As the number of cases among children increases, the IDAI and the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) have stated that the government should not reopen schools yet, following the Education and Culture Ministry's announcement that the country will allow phased reopening of schools located in COVID-19 low-risk areas, or “green zones”, starting in July.

"Not all students in schools in the green zone come from the green areas too. They could come from the yellow or red zones,” KPAI chairman Susanto said.

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