HEALTHY
Lifestyle
HEALTH UPDATE
CORONAVIRUS AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR CHILDREN
By Dr. Ahmad Yousaf, MD Saline Memorial Hospital
As of March 2nd, 2020, there have been 91 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States of America. Two people have died from the disease or of complications related to the disease. As the news floods social media, local news, and newspapers, finding reliable information that you can act upon is going to become more and more important. The Coronavirus (COVID–19) comes from a family of viruses that typically cause symptoms like the common cold. Occasionally, as with the SARS virus previously, the coronavirus can gain mutations making it uniquely virulent or more damaging than other viruses in this family. When scientists and
doctors begin to see an animal virus transmit to humans, the scientific community becomes more concerned that the virus has the capacity to gain mutations that make it more dangerous at a population health level. The term pandemic has been thrown around and it is important to understand what this could mean for you and your family. This virus seems to have started infecting humans in Wuhan, China, the capital of the Hubei Providence. It seems to have spread quite rapidly for months causing a large response from the Chinese government. Because of China’s unique geopolitical status, getting reliable information about the outbreak has been quite difficult for the international community.
It appears from what we understand at this point, the mortality rate associated with this infection is around 2%. Most people who are infected have symptoms like the flu. However, in certain populations the infection is more severe, causing worsening respiratory symptoms and difficulty breathing. This can result in things like acute respiratory distress syndrome, which is worsening edema within the lung tissue causing respiratory failure and possibly death. 2% may not seem like a large number. However, when speaking about population health and the rapid spread of this disease, we are speaking about tens of thousands of lives at risk or lost in association with this outbreak already. Here are the things we know for sure when it comes to the risk for children: • It appears that most children who have been affected have relatively mild to moderate symptoms with some requiring hospitalization. There have been no reported deaths among children at this point, but again, information from China has been limited. • The countries with the most widespread and sustained transmission and restrictions on entry to United States include China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan. Current recommendations
36 • Saline County Lifestyles
