key: cord-1043607-wboygait
authors: Sasikumar, Deepa
title: COVID-19 and pediatric cardiac care in India: Time to take stock
date: 2022-03-25
journal: Ann Pediatr Cardiol
DOI: 10.4103/apc.apc_182_21
sha: 2fe6442fded218f8f2d5960253cd6dab60bd9afd
doc_id: 1043607
cord_uid: wboygait

nan

90% of the global burden of pediatric CHD (a significant proportion of which is repaired CHD), lack adequate diagnostic and treatment facilities for cardiac care, and will face a particularly significant challenge. Therefore, it is important that health systems and schools strictly adhere to COVID-19 prevention guidelines and also remain wary about the additional risk children with CHD may face with is quite likely that the actual mortality figures for the CHD population is higher during the pandemic years because a significant number would not have come to the attention of medical community at all. The reported more than 70% reduction in hospitalizations and the alarmingly same trend in neonatal admissions, as well as emergency surgeries, are indicators that this missed group of patients might have died or are very sick, requiring emergency medical attention. The time delay in procedures caused by the pandemic may be very costly in certain interventions like pulmonary artery banding. This study covered the initial period of the pandemic, but we are not much wiser after more than a year of waxing and waning COVID-19 cases. The onus of further management should be on devising strategies to provide adequate transportation facilities for critical heart diseases even amidst regional lockdowns. As there is no immediate end to the pandemic, ways have to be devised to provide timely care to elective and semi-elective cases also, that is, life should get back as close to normalcy as possible. The prolongation of the hypoxic environment due to the one or 2-year delay in repairing stable cyanotic heart diseases may have long-term effects on the growth of these young children.

The overall low number of COVID infections in children might explain the less lung involvement in the present study. However, the picture may be different in the second wave or worse in the predicted third wave. The data on the effect of COVID-19 infection on children with CHD have shown an increased mortality, especially in the untreated. [2] This rightly points out that emergency care should continue to be offered to COVID-infected babies.

Our country has unique geographic, socioeconomic, and demographic hurdles which make it difficult t o ext r ap o lat e dat a fr o m o t her c o u nt r ies fo r application in our system. The "research made in India" initiative suggested by the pediatric cardiac society of india (PCSI) aims at encouraging research on questions pertinent to India and the most relevant topic still continues to be the effect of the pandemic on various aspects of cardiac care. As we have now crossed the second wave of the pandemic, w e s h o u l d t h i n k o f a e p i l o g u e t o t h i s s t u d y conducted during the first wave when clinicians and patients alike were naïve to the multitude of effects of the SARS-COVID virus. This will give us insight as to how physicians and surgeons have learned to live with the ongoing pandemic and identify if the lacunae identified in the first wave still exists in pediatric cardiac care.

Physiologic risk factors for respiratory viral infections and immunoprophylaxis for respiratory syncytial virus in young children with congenital heart disease

Respiratory tract infection and risk of hospitalization in children with congenital heart defects during season and off-season: A Swedish national study

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric cardiac services in India

Outcome of COVID-19-positive children with heart disease and grown-ups with congenital heart disease: A multicentric study from India

We acknowledge the Research and Development Wing of the Society for Promoting Innovation in Education (SPIE) at the Center for Innovation in Medical Education at the Aga Khan University for providing mentorship to author Aiman Arif on this Editorial. SPIE is involved with research and innovation in the academic and public health sectors.

Nil.