THE IMPACT OF COVID

19 PANDEMIC ON
CHILDREN

PRESENTER: DR. IFIORA

FRANKLIN ARINZE
SUPERVISOR: DR. NKIRU AGU
 OUTLINE
A. INTRODUCTION

1. DEFINITIONS
2. MODE OF INFECTION
3. CLINICAL PRESENTATION
4. DIAGNOSIS
5. TREATMENT
6. EPIDEMIOLOGY
OUTLINE contd
B. IMPACT OF COVID 19 ON CHILDREN
1. HUNGER AND POVERTY
2. HEALTH AND WELLBEING
3. QUALITY EDUCATION
4. CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION
5. AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY
6. DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
7. CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

C. PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS

D. CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
• Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an illness caused by severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

• Epidemic is the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness,

specific health-related behavior, or other health-related events clearly in excess
of normal expectancy.

• Pandemic is an epidemic occurring over a wide area crossing international

boundaries and affecting a large number of people
INTRODUCTION contd
• modes of infection

• exposure to respiratory droplets(coughing,talking,sneezing) carrying

infectious virus (generally within a space of 6 feet).

• contact transmission (eg, shaking hands)

• airborne transmission of droplets that linger in the air over long distances
(usually greater than 6 feet) also occur.

• Vertical transmission, infecting neonates have been described

INTRODUCTION contd.
• Clinical presentations range from asymptomatic/mild symptoms to
severe illness and mortality.

• A severe multisystem inflammatory syndrome described in children.

INTRODUCTION contd
• Study in Bauchi State, Nigeria that involved 53 infected children
showed

• Majority were asymptomatic (60.4%),

• 32.1% and 7.5% had mild and moderate diseases respectively.

• The most common symptoms were cough (20.8%), fever (17%), and sneezing
(15.1%). Five children (9.4%) complained of loss of taste while anosmia was
documented in one child (1.9%).

• no case of severe or critical disease

INTRODUCTION contd
DIAGNOSIS
• History consistent with COVID 19 include

• respiratory tract symptoms and new onset fever

• severe lower respiratory tract symptoms with no clear cause.

• being in an area with community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 or

• being in close contact with an individual with confirmed or suspected COVID-

19 in the preceding 14 days

• Definitive diagnosis is by microbiologic (PCR) testing

INTRODUCTION contd
TREATMENT
• As of October 22, 2020, remdesivir, is the only drug approved for
treatment of COVID-19.

• indicated for treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized adults and

children aged 12 years and older who weigh at least 40 kg.

• emergency use authorization (EUA) to treat pediatric patients

weighing 3.5 kg to less than 40 kg or children younger than 12 years
who weigh at least 3.5 kg.
INTRODUCTION contd
EPIDEMIOLOGY

• first reported in the city of Wuhan, China in late December 2019

• Nigeria recorded her index case in February 2020

• On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it

a pandemic.
INTRODUCTION contd
EPIDEMIOLOGY

• As of November 6, 2020, confirmed COVID-19 infections over 48.5

million worldwide, resulting in over 1.2 million deaths.

• COVID 19 has impacted the entire world drastically threatening the

economic stability of nations, and hence all development goals.

• Children being the most vulnerable in all populations bear the brunt
INTRODUCTION contd
EPIDEMIOLOGY
• Africa’s COVID-19 lower mortality rate has been found to be due to

• the lower population mean age,

• lower life expectancy,

• lower pre-COVID era ‘65 yr + mortality rate’, and

• lower pool of persons surviving and living with cardiovascular diseases.

•IMPACT OF COVID 19
IMPACT OF COVID 19
Hunger and poverty

• Hunger and poverty

• Globally, COVID‐19 pandemic led to major increases in unemployment

• expected to lead to unprecedented increases in poverty and food/nutrition

insecurity.
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Hunger and poverty
• Unfortunate orphans are easy victims for
• abandonment,

• child trafficking,

• sexual exploitation, unwanted pregnancy and unplanned parenthood,

• coerced begging

• child labor.

• imprisonment due to crime,

• substance abuse, self-harm and suicide

IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd.
Health and wellbeing
• Health and wellbeing
• Isolation, contact restrictions, economic shutdown, parental mental illness,
domestic violence and child maltreatment change the psychosocial
environment.

• These threaten the mental health of children and adolescents: childhood

depression, anxiety disorders, childhood obsession, pervasive developmental
disorder, eating disorders etc

• increased risk especially for children and adolescents with special needs.
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Health and wellbeing
• Primary healthcare activities grossly impaired from reallocation of personnel
and resources, shortages of funds and transport issues.

• basic health care,

• mental healthcare,
• childhood immunizations,
• maternal healthcare,
• supply of essential drugs

• Severely limited access to basic healthcare would lead to spread of both

COVID-19 and other non-COVID diseases of public health importance
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Health and wellbeing

• On 4 April 2020, the Global Fund released a guidance note allowing

recipient countries to use HIV, TB and malaria grants to fight COVID-
19 through reprogramming

• In Zimbabwe, PEPFAR has instructed that $150 000 be used to buy

personal protective equipment in facilities
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Health and wellbeing

• Worsening of obesity epidemic

• Physical, nutritional, and psychosocial factors occasioned by large scale

quarantines will promote obesity in some children.
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Health and wellbeing

• Children with comorbidities

• Children with type-1 diabetes not getting insulin regularly;

• Children with HIV not getting anti-retrovirals

• Children with airway diseases not getting inhalers etc

• kids with comorbidities more prone to get infected and get severely
symptomatic with COVID-19
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Health and wellbeing
• Impact on kids whose parents are frontline COVID “warriors”

• Though periods of lockdown is opportunity for parents to mingle with their

children

• Healthcare workers
• Are hard-pressed and hardly finding any time for their family and children

• Have Fear and guilt of contamination of the lethal virus to their little ones

• Breastfeeding is being jeopardized

• protracted periods of distancing.

IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Quality education
• Quality education

• Infected children may not be well enough to continue learning

• Lockdowns prevent access of children to schools

• Children from low and middle economic classes may not have access to
online learning materials

• drop-out from formal education

IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Clean water and sanitation
• Clean water and sanitation
• highly infectious nature of SARS-CoV-2 virus requires rigorous infection
prevention and control (IPC) to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 within
school environments,

• in low-resource settings, with the lack of water

• low-handwashing adherence,

• ineffective surface decontamination,

• Ineffective critical environmental cleaning functions

IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Affordable and clean energy

• Affordable and clean energy

• Focusing on the United States, in the short run, Covid-19 has reduced

• consumption of jet fuel and gasoline dramatically, by 50% and 30% respectively,
while
• electricity demand has declined by less than 10%.
• CO2 emissions have declined by 15%, while local air pollutants have also declined

• However reduced investments in clean energy outweigh the emission reductions and
avoided deaths on long-run, leading to

• additional
• 2,500 million metric tons of CO2 cumulatively
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Decent work and economic growth

• Decent work and economic growth

• Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total monetary or market value of all the
finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific
time period.

• It is a comprehensive scorecard of a country’s economic health.

COVID 19 AND THE ECONOMY
COVID 19 AND GDP
• In Nigeria 8-week lockdown (March–June), as well as “recovery”
scenarios
• total GDP fell 23% during the lockdown.

• Agri-food system GDP fell 11%, primarily due to restrictions on food services.

• Household incomes also fell by a quarter, leading a 9% points increase in the

national poverty rate
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
Decent work and economic growth

• Penury hits the children hardest and makes them

• vulnerable to SARS-CoV2 exposure,

•
• receive low quality health care,
•
• have higher mortality, for COVID unrelated death
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
care of the environment
• The factors looked at above are addressed by the initial
components(1st to 4th, and 6th to 10th) of the Sustainable
Development Goals to promote healthy lives, and healthy economies,

• Such healthy populations and healthy economies allow man to spare

a thought for his environment, the business of the 11th to 15th SDGs
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
care of the environment
• With man battling to stabilize the health of populations and economies, the aspects of
the sustainable development goals that care for the environment become neglected.

• Sustainable cities and communities

• Responsible consumption and production

• Climate action

• Life below water

• Life on land
IMPACT OF COVID 19 contd
care of the environment
• The spirit of these goals is that as man conquers poverty, he becomes
capable of sparing a thought for his environment which in turns
ensures sustainability of his escape from poverty.

• COVID pandemic threatens the gains the world has made , and
children being the most vulnerable of humans will bear the greater
brunt.
PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS

• Parents, pediatricians, psychologists, social workers, hospital authorities,

government and nongovernmental organizations have important roles to play.

• Friendly interaction and communication between parents and children may

help reinforce bonding, and sooth their pandemic-related anxieties.

• habits of storytelling, reading and writing, drawing, singing and dancing, indoor
playing

• parents to infuse ethical teachings about importance of family, societal relations,

healthy behaviors, etc., within the mind of their children
PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS contd
• Absorbing children in household and family activities as appropriate
will improve their self-sufficiency skills

• Social sites more cautious to censor contents related to online sexual

exploitation.
PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS contd

• Parents to monitor online activities of their children.

• Service hotlines for cases of suspected abuse

• Awareness campaigns against domestic violence and child abuse and

PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS contd
• Awareness campaigns for facilities for abuse-survivors and children
requiring psychological support.

• Welfare centers should trace orphans who might need support and
keep them under care of
• other family member,

• kinship care or

• trained foster care as much as convenient

PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS contd
• Disruption of many essential health care services for children and
adolescents in time of COVID-19 should be dealt with more expertise;

• barriers to this kind of unique care should be demolished.

• Immunization services and mental health services must be conducted with

utmost zeal
 CONCLUSION
• Scale and speed of COVID-19 global spread, has produced sudden and
severe economic shocks coexisting with a raging pandemic
• The impact has been felt significantly across all the domains of human
development as described by the sustainable development goals
• Children being the most vulnerable of humans bear the brunt of these
catastrophies
• Governments and civil society can by a sincere commitment to
mitigate human suffering limit the catastrophic fallouts of the
pandemic.
Thank you
•Thank you
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REFERENCES contd
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REFERENCES contd
• TO BE ADDED LATER