Care for children with Covid increases by 593% at Sabará hospital, in SP

In an emergency room at the Sabará Children’s Hospital, in São Paulo, Eric Santos says he was scared when his youngest son, aged 4, was diagnosed with Covid on Saturday (29), three days after classes started at the children’s school. .

“I went into despair. I started to have shortness of breath, I went to the doctor, but it was just anxiety”, he says, while accompanying the consultation of his daughter Giovanna, 11, on Tuesday (1st) also with the symptoms of the disease.

In January of this year, the hospital, the only private hospital in the capital of São Paulo fully dedicated to pediatrics, saw the number of visits to the emergency room (ER) for symptoms suggestive of Covid increase almost sixfold compared to January 2021: 534 cases against 77 (growth of 593%). Hospitalizations tripled: from 17 to 75 (341%).

In PS calls, 85% are due to symptoms of Covid, a historic mark of the institution. Among those diagnosed, 55% are under five years old. Among those hospitalized, they are 66%.

With the return to school and the still high circulation of the omicron and other respiratory viruses, the expectation is that February will continue without a truce in the care of respiratory symptoms.

“It is always a point of attention for us. Children must continue to wear masks, maintain hygiene measures and be vaccinated [quando a vacina estiver disponível para a sua faixa etária]”, says pediatrician Thales Araújo de Oliveira, manager of the PS of Sabará. The vaccination campaign is currently aimed at children from 5 to 11 years old.

According to him, although many parents are apprehensive about the return of face-to-face classes, it is clear to pediatricians the impact on children’s mental health of being away from school and socializing with peers.

“It was not our routine to receive children with an anxiety crisis, with panic syndrome. They are very scared because they came into contact with the feeling of finitude. We received a child who, after the diagnosis of Covid, despaired with the fear of dying. “

With the use of telemedicine, Sabará has been monitoring children diagnosed with Covid remotely, and face-to-face service is faster. “The child collects a urine test and goes home. When the result comes out, the doctor calls and concludes the consultation. Instead of staying 150 minutes in the ER, the child stays 70”, says the pediatrician.

The care needs to be in person if the child has vomiting and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration, is not eating or has a fever that does not give in to medication.

According to PS doctor Ligia Ranalli, a fact that has drawn attention is that, with most adults already vaccinated, children are more exposed and have become vectors of transmission of Covid.

“Last year, those who caught the disease, in general, were parents or grandparents, who passed it on to children. Now unvaccinated children are bringing Covid home. They start with symptoms and then parents start to present.”

Pediatrician David Nisenbaum says that this spread in the family caught everyone’s attention. “Sometimes we receive the child here, but the whole family is infected.”

That’s what happened at the house of Mariana, 1 year and five months old. The first to have a positive result for Covid was her mother, Lilian Nascimento, 31. She had mild flu symptoms and loss of taste and smell. Then she was her husband.

“That was when Mariana started to have a fever. We tested and it was also positive”, says the mother, who is at the end of Manuela’s pregnancy. On Saturday (29), Mariana was hospitalized because the fever did not subside, the oxygen saturation level was low and there was alteration in the lung.

“We are very worried and can’t wait for the vaccination to arrive in her age group. My husband and I already have both doses and we are going to take the third. She has Down syndrome, her immunity is lower.”

According to infectious disease specialist Francisco Ivanildo de Oliveira Júnior, quality manager at Sabará, it is possible to observe a change in the profile of children hospitalized for Covid. At the beginning of January, there were more babies, without previous illnesses, and who were hospitalized for one or two days.

In the second half of the year, the scenario changed. The number of children who, due to chronic diseases, have the most severe form of Covid and stay in hospital for longer, some in the ICU, has increased.

“Last week, we had 24 children, with half of them in hospital beds. [nos quartos e enfermarias] and the other half in the ICU”, says Oliveira Júnior.

According to pediatric intensivist Maria Carolina Modolo, hospitalization in intensive care always causes a lot of anxiety in parents. “We try to calm them down by explaining that staying in the place is important to monitor the general picture and oxygenation.”

Children with more severe conditions, who need ICU, usually stay in hospital for one to two weeks until weaning from mechanical ventilation. The lightest, one to two days.

Last Tuesday (1st), 16 children with Covid were hospitalized, of which six occupied ICU beds.

Miss Polliana, 5, who has a neurological syndrome, was one of them. The mother, Carita Santos Souza, 44, says that the first to be infected by Covid, three weeks ago, was her husband, who needed to be hospitalized due to pneumonia.

Polliana, the only one of the four siblings to become infected, had a high fever, a lot of secretions in her chest, respiratory distress and low oxygen saturation, and had to stay in the ICU. Her mother still doesn’t know if she has been infected. “I didn’t even have time to test it.” Last Tuesday, the girl was discharged.