Coronavirus inflicted child mortality rates higher in Pakistan highlights study

Coronavirus inflicted mortality rates is higher in Pakistan than in the other parts of the world according to a study.

Coronavirus has resulted in the deaths of 159 children in Pakistan since March 2020, researchers said, adding that the percentage of deaths among children is over 14% in the country which is "unusually high" as compared to other parts of the world, according to Geo TV.

The joint study by Aga Khan University, Karachi's National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and National Institute of Child Health; Children's Hospital, Lahore; and Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, revealed that the percentage of deaths among children was over 14 per as compared to western countries where mortality rates in children from COVID-19 have been recorded under 1 per cent.

Further, one in seven children in Pakistan, who contracted moderate to severe COVID-19, lost their lives to the virus, a mortality rate that was many times higher than countries in the West, according to a World Health Organization-sponsored multi-centre study in Pakistan, according to Geo TV.

According to Aga Khan University's study children with underlying health conditions such as malnutrition, cancer or cardiovascular disease were at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19, with findings showing that one in five young patients with comorbidities, or 19.5 per cent, lost their lives.

Meanwhile, respiratory ailments were another major cause of deadly complications from the virus, according to the researchers.

Further, the researchers noted that most deaths in the study occurred in 2021 rather than 2020, which suggested that later strains of the virus might be more deadly compared to the strain at the start of the outbreak in Pakistan, according to Geo TV.

"While overall mortality from COVID-19 in children is low compared to adults, it is now clear that COVID-19 is not a benign disease in children. The virus is continuously evolving and the medical community should follow the updated treatment guidelines," said the study's principal investigators in Pakistan.

( With inputs from ANI )

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