The sudden deaths of three children in Kolkata within a 24-hour period, reported in the news on February 27, raised concerns about the adenovirus’s fast spread throughout the city and throughout West Bengal. The youngest victims were nine and eight months infants, while the oldest were one and a half years old. While the adenovirus infection in the nine-month-old was verified, results on the other two cases are still pending.
At the only and best pediatric referral facility in the state, Dr. B.C. Roy Post Graduate Institute of Pediatric Sciences in Kolkata, two of the deaths took place. According to reports, the B.C. Roy hospital’s absence of a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) bed was to blame for the nine-month-old baby’s death. The infant had already received 12 days of adenovirus treatment before being released, but he later experienced problems. Due to a lack of available PICU beds in the hospital, the infant could not be admitted for a second time.
Children with coughs, colds, and acute respiratory distress have been reported in a growing number of instances over the past two months in Kolkata. According to doctors, many infants under the age of two have complained of having severe wheezing, with some even needing ventilator assistance.
15 children have perished in Bengal from acute respiratory infections since December of last year, according to a doctor who spoke on the condition of anonymity, though not all of these cases have been definitively linked to adenovirus. Adenovirus had been detected in about 33% of the 500 samples from all over Bengal that were sent to the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata between January and the third week of February.
All age groups are susceptible to the mild cold and flu-like symptoms caused by adenovirus, but infants are particularly at risk. Professor and virologist at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Dr. Amitava Nandy, said an individual’s immune health had a direct impact on how intense a viral assault would be. Since the virus is endemic, we ought to have achieved herd protection by now. However, I believe Covid has destroyed our immune system, causing what was a virus that caused the normal cold and flu to become more severe and complicated. Even dengue and malaria assaults are getting worse. Chikungunya high temperature typically lasts four to five days. The duration can now reach weeks.
Adenovirus was not the only factor in the epidemic in Kolkata, according to Dr. Nandy, as the diagnosis has largely been symptomatic and presumptive. “It might be a Covid variety, a rhinovirus, a parainfluenza virus, or even the flu virus. Covid RTPCR testing has been authorized by the government, which at the very least will guarantee that Covid has not attacked again, the speaker claimed.
In Kolkata, doctors are recommending patients to isolate themselves if they exhibit symptoms of the flu as well as to wear masks, sanitize their hands frequently, or both. They are advising against using over-the-counter medications or self-medication. It’s advised to see a doctor right away in cases involving minors, they say. The extent of the pain is concerning. Even after getting over an adenovirus infection, there have been instances of individuals getting sick on a regular basis. Adults with a compromised immune system who have previously contracted Covid are more susceptible.
The high incidence of infectiousness among children is severely straining the pediatric healthcare system. About half of Bengal’s government institutions, including district and general hospitals and healthcare facilities, according to the doctor who spoke on the record under the condition of anonymity, lack PICUs. There are no intensive care units (ICUs) or critical care units in many government medical schools.
There is always a dearth of pediatricians; each block-level primary hospital needs three; each state-level general and district-level general hospital needs six. “A proper set-up entails more than just tools. For tasks like ventilator incubation, we must be prepared with paramedics, nurses, and qualified employees, according to professor Manas Gumta of the Association for Health Services Doctors.
To assist with the staff shortage, the state government has now issued an order directing the recruitment of paramedics. The timing of this is still uncertain. Even though adenovirus cases have been on the rise for the past two months, the conversion of gynecological units into children’s wards has just begun.
