Since the start of the epidemic, more than 63,000 people have died worldwide, including more than 46,000 in Europe. Often elderly victims or victims of other illnesses. But the Covid-19 also seriously affects the youngest.
In recent days, several patients under the age of 18 with coronavirus have died worldwide. The latest example is the death of a five-year-old child in the United Kingdom, the youngest recorded in the country, which has recorded more than 4,300 coronavirus-related deaths to date.
A six week old baby
Last week, Julie, a 16-year-old girl died of the virus in France, in Paris. On March 28, a nine-month-old baby this time died in the United States from covid-19 infection. Before that, adolescents aged 14, 13 and 12 died in Portugal, the United Kingdom and Belgium, lists Le Dauphiné Libéré. Finally, on April 1, another six-week-old baby died in the United States. To date, he is the youngest victim of the virus.
The editorial staff advises you
So many cases that point out that young people are not spared even if deaths are still rare to this day. The director of the World Health Organization reminded him of this during from a press conference on Friday March 20 in Geneva: “Today I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus can lead you to the hospital for weeks and even kill you”, he insisted.
Cases that remain rare
The virus “very predominantly affects elderly patients with co-morbidities,” said Bruno Riou, a manager of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris after the announcement of the death of the young Julie A. in Paris.
But “from the moment there are more and more affected patients, there are more and more serious patients and even if the population of the youngest has an extremely low individual risk (…) naturally there will be some very severely ill patients among the youngest, “he also pointed out.
Healthcare professionals, however, allay concerns. As the French pediatric society indicates, a study carried out on cases in China and published in the journal Pediatrics indicates that out of 2143 pediatric cases, in 94% of cases the disease was, however, mild. Of the 112 serious cases, 60% were less than 5 years and 30% less than 1 year and among the 13 critical cases, 7 were less than 1 year.
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