Kolkata: Unlike Covid, children under the age of two are most vulnerable to adenovirus.
The recent spike in adenovirus cases in West Bengal’s capital and adjoining districts is worrisome, said Dr Naresh Purohit, Advisor, National Communicable Disease Control Programme.
Sharing his concern on the recent death of four children, who died due to respiratory infections in Kolkata within 24 hours amidst the fear of adenovirus outbreak, Visiting Professor at the Kolkata based West Bengal University of Health Sciences, School of Public Health Dr Purohit told UNI here on Thursday that two deaths were reported at the Dr. B C Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences, while two deaths were reported at the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (MCH) on Wednesday .
This comes a day after the deaths of five children were reported across hospitals in Kolkata.
Dr Purohit pointed that adenoviruses can cause a wide range of illnesses including common cold or flu-like symptoms. People with weakened immune systems, particularly children, are at higher risk.
“Most of the children who died on Wednesday in the capital had been suffering from “co-morbidities. These are children who are born underweight or had heart related issues, ” he added
The Principal Investigator for the National Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme averred that adenoviruses usually cause respiratory illnesses such as the common cold, conjunctivitis, bronchitis, or pneumonia. In children, it usually causes infections in the respiratory tract and intestinal tract.
He cautioned that in children under two years of age, adenovirus mainly causes infection through the respiratory tract, while children between the ages of two and five years develop an infection in the gastrointestinal tract, leading to diarrhoea.
He said that at present there is no specific treatment for adenovirus infection that causes cold or influenza-like illness.
“There are no approved antiviral drugs or specific treatments for people infected with adenovirus. About 90 percent of cases are mild and can be managed with over-the-counter fever reducers such as paracetamol, in addition to rest. Steam inhalation or even a nebulized bronchodilator can bring symptomatic relief,” said the renowned physician.
He averred that some severely affected children required hospitalization and advised parents to keep the infected child with its mother to avoid psychological trauma.
“Children should wash their hands thoroughly and should not go near people with cough and cold,” he added.
He urged that precautionary measures should be taken to fight the adenovirus while advising people not to panic.
He informed that the state health department has asked all chief medical health officers (CMOH) and medical college officials to take stock of the oxygen administration equipment and pediatric ventilators and check the preparedness.
He further said that the DHS has also recently issued an advisory asking people not to use antibiotics indiscriminately, besides “not sending sick children to school”.
“All paediatric acute respiratory infection (ARI) clinics will operate at the medical college and hospitals (MCHs), district hospitals and sub-divisional hospitals, among others, round the clock. No paediatric ARI cases shall be referred without the knowledge of the concerned MSVP/Superintendent of the hospital,” the advisory said.
