Dr. S. Senthilkumar, Consultant – Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Meenakshi Mission Hospital & Research Centre, Madurai explains, “All viruses have a natural capacity to evolve continuously by making minor changes in their structure and functions by gene modifications known commonly as mutations. These mutations may be insignificant or significant enough for the virus to behave as a new variant with different properties. Sometimes these mutations can even make the virus less potent than the original virus. Alpha and Delta variants were the initial mutated variants which were responsible for the previous waves of COVID. So OMICRON (B.1.1.529) is one such recently mutated variant of the Coronavirus.”
Dr. C. Jayakumar, Professor & Head, General Pediatrics, Amrita Hospital adds, “We don’t know much about this variant yet. From the information that we have, it is far more dangerous than the last two COVID variants. How this is going to cause pneumonia and other dangerous complications are yet to be discovered. So, till the time we get the correct picture of the nature of this virus it is our duty that we protect ourselves and follow the guidelines issued by respective state and central governments. It is also very important to get both the doses of the vaccine, the government soon can advise for booster doses also to be safe from the adverse effects. Certain vaccines are superior in preventing this Omicron variant, but we scientists and researchers are not yet sure about this fully and the study on this is ongoing.”
Are children at higher risk from this variant?Dr. S. Senthilkumar says, “From our experience from the previous two COVID waves have shown that children are not at higher risk and also the disease is usually mild when compared to adults. It’s high time the public resorts to strict adherence to anti COVID measures in public spaces to prevent further lockdowns. We need to wait for the nature of the progression of the virus to get a clear picture. But with aggressive vaccination coverage the possibility of a third wave may either be delayed or even mitigated.”
The only way to protect yourself right now is to use a mask which is more important now than ever before and the mask may be our vaccine for this Omicron variant, till the time our researchers and experts find out a way.
Dr Jayakumar adds, “Advise your children strictly and educate them about the importance of wearing masks. Hand washing is also very important. And we have to avoid all crowding as Omicron is said to spread very fast through the air. All crowding has to be avoided. Children should take food in the class itself rather than open spaces or in canteens. And the only thing we can focus on doing right now is to educate our kids on the virus and make them understand the importance of safety protocols to follow when they are in school.”
When asked how panicked should parents be, Dr Shriram Nene shares, “It’s very important for people to be smart right now. There is no clear data on Omicron yet, all are simply speculations. The need of the hour is vaccination for kids.” Even the newly introduced ZyCoV-D vaccine that has been tested on 12+ age groups will yet not be available for children until they are able to ramp up their production capacity.
Dr Vishwanath Bellad, pulmonologist from BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital shares, “Apart from following all COVID protocols, seeking medical help as soon as the symptoms suggest viral respiratory infection is important.”
However, it should also be taken into consideration that the seasonal change will bring about cases of flu among kids, so you should not panic. Treat any flu-like symptoms in your child with the help of your pediatrician.