CAMAGÜEY.- Leonardo Leinier Galván Cosío is 11 years old, he is a beautiful boy who is in sixth grade. He is very loved and cared for by his family; however, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19 found a loophole and made him sick.
Her mother, Yunilexis Cosío Cabrera, told us: “My daughter is a nursing student and she did her research tasks, she was the first to become infected, but we do not know where it happened.
“When she felt the first symptoms, very mild, she went to the family doctor and they checked her, when her infection was confirmed, they visited us and admitted us, her father, her brother and me, to a center for the purpose because we were her contacts. The boy and I tested negative for the first PCR and they sent us home, but on the fifth day, they came again and performed another PCR, just in case we were incubating the disease and that was when Leonardo tested positive, they sent us to the military hospital Octavio de la Concepción y de la Pedraja both because he is a minor and when he tested negative then I was positive ”.
The concern of the Health personnel was, fundamentally, in the fact that my child has a heart disease and has other ailments, issues that made him more vulnerable; however, he received his treatment without complications until he was discharged from hospital.
“At that hospital the care was wonderful, they checked us through analysis or X-rays as many times as necessary, the child was given antibiotics in the vein and so on until he tested negative and went home with his father who was already back there. We were always without symptoms ". The process of this family, which began last March 6, lasted almost a month.
FOLLOW-UP CONSULTATION ...
Although the family is already at home and they return to normal life, although with extreme care, Leonardo Leinier is checked once a month by pediatric doctors specialized in respiratory, cardiology, physiatry, psychology ..., and all that he needs at any given time .
Yunilexis expressed feeling safe and supported, even more because of the chronic diseases suffered by the child, who so far is doing well. “They check him, she added, they do electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, in short, everything he requires and although I have no idea how much all this costs the State, I must add transportation while we were sick and always accompanied by a doctor and a nurse .
"I work in Zona + of Cimex, she commented, but I took advantage of the protection of receiving 60% of my salary to be with my son, we have to continue taking care of ourselves to avoid another contagion."
Dr. Yamina Teresa Rivero Fernández, specialist in Pediatrics, and from the respiratory service of the Eduardo Agramonte Piña pediatric hospital, in this city, is one of the experts who takes this follow-up consultation apart from the fact that she has been evaluating children positive for COVID-19 for more than a year in the Military Hospital, as support and advice to pediatricians who remain in the red zone.
The also Master in Infectology and Assistant Professor of the Carlos J. Finlay University of Medical Sciences, from Camagüey, draws attention to the increase in positive cases of minors with this disease and assured: “We are engaged in providing a better quality of life to our children, but the help of parents and family is essential, it is not possible to continue with infected children under one year of age, they do not have to interact with the environment, they must be careful in their homes and without receiving visitors " .
The provincial consultation for the recovery of patients who suffered from COVID-19 was instituted since last year with this multidisciplinary team. When the child recovers and is discharged from the hospital, he is admitted to the home and followed by his family doctor and the pediatrician who corresponds to him and if he does not face any problem, he is discharged after 15 days, they are also evaluated by psychopedagogues and psychologists in their areas of Health, and then go through this consultation.
“To date, said the specialist, we have not detected respiratory sequelae, but we must not neglect ourselves, since one of the most common associated diseases in children has been bronchial asthma, but within the main sequelae left by SARS-CoV- 2 to our Camagüey's children we have the psychological ones, such as: behavior and sleep disorders, anxiety, restlessness and lack of concentration ”.
NECESSARY FIGURES
In the first stage of the pandemic in the province of Camagüey, that is, from March to July of last year, 19 minors were treated; of them only seven from the province of Camagüey, two foreigners and the rest from Ciego de Ávila, according to what Dr. Yamina announced, while, in the following periods, the numbers have increased in this age group, and although the results have been satisfactory, there have been cases with inflammatory lesions with associated bronchopneumonia, including heart disease, epilepsy or other conditions.
During the year 2021 more than 450 Camagüey's children have been confirmed with COVID-19, and, Yamina said: "In the" Military "we have almost 40 children admitted, and others in various health care units, so there are many pediatricians in the red zone, at the foot of those patients.
“As the months go by, she added, the number of diagnosed children grows, something very unfortunate and worrying. In May, 75 children were cared for; 40 boys for 53% and 35 girls for 27%. Under one year, four, as can be seen, these times do not resemble the first stage and for the worse.
“The population must be clear that the child can get complicated, it is false that it will not get complicated, it is a very unknown disease yet and we do not know everything. Adolescents are an irreverent age group, but we still have to take care of them. In the world, deaths in children due to this disease have been reported. In Camagüey we have only had two serious patients, one suffering from infantile cerebral palsy and the other a nursing one, both from Ciego de Ávila, who returned home thanks to the experienced pediatricians that we have and the timely treatment ”.
From January to March of this year, 360 confirmed children were treated, and among them many were diagnosed due to the verification of the so-called suspects.
MEASURES TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT ALWAYS
Apart from the measures oriented every day at all levels, Dr. Yamina referred to the fact that: “Children never kiss on the face because the flora that people have is never the same as that of the baby, and we always say that specialists in the respiratory tract, not only when facing this disease, because what is normal for an adult can mean a lot against that child and even become serious.
“And despite so much sadness, this has led us to know that we were doing things wrong. You have to take better care of yourself, have hygiene, wash your hands and stop being so special in that of affection, you have to stop kissing and that does not mean that we stop loving, on the contrary, that is how we love them more.
“We fight so that our children are well, and there are many with basic diseases that can compromise their lives if they are infected and that must be avoided. We cannot afford to walk in the streets with our children, that is not fair even with them who are innocent ”, she added.
“Medications and precise actions have been counted on in each case, but we cannot forget that the danger is that each individual responds with their immune system and it is always differently and even more so in the presence of comorbidities and know that in our children there are obese, hypertensive, epileptics, heart disease, kidney disease, just to mention a few, and all of this can complicate it and the chances of dying are increased, "said Rivero.
“The family has responded very well to this follow-up consultation and if the child does not present any sequelae, we return him to his health area.
MOM AND SON SAY ...
Yunilexis is convinced that the fundamental thing is to avoid contagion from children. “You have to follow to the letter, she said, the targeted measures, that walk in the streets as little as possible. I wanted to die when I found out that my child was infected, it is not easy to go through this, only those who suffer it know, ”she reiterated.
Regarding the vaccination against COVID-19 Yunilexis was precise: “We will all wear it at home as soon as they tell us, we trust. Thanks to the vaccination scheme in our country, many deadly diseases have been eradicated ”.
Leonardo Leinier with his short years commented: “They took good care of me, I didn't feel anything and now I feel good. I follow the classes, I copy them every day, I am at the Renato Guitart school, and I recommend that the other children not leave their homes, that they always wear the face mask, wash their hands and pay attention to their parents ”.
- Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez