www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/worrying-number-children-pregnant-women-hospital-omicron-surges/
Worrying' number of children and pregnant women in hospital as omicron surges in South Africa
A leading doctor has painted a grim picture from inside an intensive care unit on the outskirts of Johannesburg as cases top three million
By
Peta Thornycroft
JOHANNESBURG and
Will Brown
NAIROBI
4 December 2021 • 5:32am
Scientists say that omicron is behind the explosion of infections in the country's Gauteng Province, which is home to both the sprawling metropolis Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria.
Scientists say that omicron is behind the explosion of infections in the country's Gauteng Province, which is home to both the sprawling metropolis Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria. CREDIT: Phill Magakoe/Pool via REUTERS
The new omicron variant may be hospitalising more children and pregnant women than in previous waves, a leading doctor at the largest hospital in Africa told The Telegraph.
While other reports from primary care in South Africa and across the world have suggested that the symptoms of omicron may be mild – particularly for people who have been fully vaccinated – intensive care specialist Professor Rudo Mathivha painted a grim picture from inside Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, in the vast Soweto township on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
Omicron was first identified in Botswana and South Africa, and is believed to be behind a vast recent rise in cases in South Africa.
On Friday the country saw infections surge to a record three million, with the government reporting 16,055 new cases over a 24-hour period.
"A 15-year-old died this morning. He was a new Covid-19 admission and developed pneumonia," said Professor Mathivha, in one of the first interviews given by a South African hospital doctor since the new wave began.
"So this child has died. We now have 37 [mostly unvaccinated] pregnant women [in the hospital with Covid-19 infections], and 22 of them are symptomatic. They need to be admitted into intensive care. They are pregnant. They are young.
"We shouldn't be seeing these kinds of numbers this early in the wave," she added. "We should not be seeing a young child who is moderate to severely symptomatic, needing supplementary oxygen or high care intervention. It is this which is worrying me."
Over the last ten days, South Africa's Covid-19 infection numbers have rocketed from about 300 a day to more than 11,500.
Scientists say that omicron is behind the explosion of infections in the country's Gauteng Province, which is home to both the sprawling metropolis Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria.
Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital has seen its patient numbers double this week, while hospital admissions across the region have increased sixfold in the last fortnight. Vaccination rates across South Africa remain low, at around 25 per cent.
Professor Mathivha, one of the most experienced intensive care specialists in the country, who has headed up Chris Hani's ICU units for two decades, emphasised that she was seeing a markedly different demographic being admitted to the hospital in this wave.
"We are seeing the younger population…I don't know why other people are not talking about it. I am not saying all children out there are ill, but children are being adversely affected in this wave. In the past waves, we hardly ever admitted seriously ill children."
"Now we are having to admit toddlers and kids under 15 with no co-morbidities who have severe Covid-19. They fade away in front of you. Not in hundreds, but it should not happen. We need to protect our children," she continued.
Professor Mathivha added that scores of youngsters had now been admitted to other ICU sections around Gauteng province and that she was concerned that so many schools around the province were closing a week early for Christmas.
"Everyone is keeping quiet because of cluster outbreaks in those schools. Kids are coming down with sore throats, headaches, fever, and so the schools closed saying 'we will see you next year.
"I believe this is the new variant. This is not like the previous variants," she added.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organization's Covid-19 lead, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, said the body had seen reports ranging from mild to severe, adding that their data showed that "some" patients present with mild disease.
"It's early days," she cautioned.
The variant has sparked global alarm because it has a large number of mutations, some of which have appeared in previous variants and increased the transmissibility of the virus, or reduced to a certain extent how well vaccines protect against infection.
However, the WHO has also said that they expect vaccines will continue to provide some protection against severe disease.
The health agency's chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan added on Friday: "How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we're in a different situation to a year ago."
Pregnant women are already known to be at high risk of coronavirus: in October, unvaccinated pregnant women made up a fifth of the most critically ill coronavirus patients in England.
Similar fears about children's vulnerability to new variants were raised in the UK at the beginning of the year, when alpha caused an explosion in cases. It was later shown that the variant was no more dangerous to children than other strains of coronavirus.
However, the world is watching South Africa closely to see if these early reports can provide a guide for the impact of omicron on the pandemic globally.