Guide to vaccination against covid-19 in childhood

This year, the 21st Immunization Week in the Americas will be April 22-29, and is hosted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

For this year 2023, professional members of the association Committee on Vaccines and Biological Medicines of the Latin American Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (SLIPE) published a guide on vaccinating children against covid-19.

Children should be vaccinated against virus for four main reasons: in order to reduce the hospitalization rate, avoid the development of multisystem inflammatory syndrome, prevent prolonged covid and prevent the spread of the virus.

Some points the document highlights:

– At least 5%-10% of pediatric patients may experience prolonged covid-19 syndrome, a set of multiorgan manifestations that last several months after the initial infection.

– Although it is unlikely that children suffer from severe symptoms of covid-19, hospitalization rates due to this disease in the pediatric population are higher than those caused by other typical childhood infections such as flu, whooping cough, hepatitis A, rotavirus, chicken pox, etc. to name a few, explains Dr. Roberto Debbag, president of the Latin American Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (SLIPE).

For this reason, pediatricians appeal to parents to regularly vaccinate their children against these vaccine-preventable diseases, whose coverage has been reduced during the pandemic.

– Chronic effects of covid-19 have been shown to include fatigue, muscle and joint pain, respiratory problems and lack of smell even after 3 months of infection.

– According to a recently published meta-analysis, the effects of covid are not only present on a physical level, but can also affect the psychological health of children; in which it is evident that up to 31% have symptoms of depression, another 31% have symptoms of anxiety, and 42% have sleep disorders.

– Some children infected with the virus that causes covid-19 may be affected by pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a condition in which widespread and uncontrolled inflammation occurs throughout the body that may require hospitalization in intensive care units.

The mortality rate of this syndrome varies between 1% and 8%, depending on health and social conditions.

– The Latin American Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases mentions that hospitalization rates due to covid-19 in the pediatric population are higher than those caused by other typical childhood infections.