Revised guidelines for Covid treatment in kids was delayed, but well written, says SGRH child specialist

Reacting to government's guidelines, which discourages the use of Remdesivir for treating Covid-19 in children, Dr Dhiren Gupta, a paediatric intensivist at Ganga Ram Hospital on Thursday said the directives although delayed by two months has been written well.

"Probably they (guidelines) have arrived late it should have come at least two months back, there was a lot of confusion regarding when to use steroids when to use remedisivir in patients," Dr Dhiren told ANI.

However, the doctor said that these guidelines are well written.

"One thing is very clear that using the mask is not possible for children below two years but after two years we can use a mask. Ultimately the use of the mask is going to prevent the virus before we get an effective vaccine, even after the effective vaccine, when will be able to vaccinate paediatric age group is difficult to predict," said Dr Dhiren.

On the use of steroid, he clarified that if the steroid is required in one out of a hundred adult patients then in case of children one out of a thousand is needed.

"Use of steroid is going to be very less in acute COVID, a most important problem with the paediatric patient is MISC, guidelines also mention about the treatment plan of MISC," He added.

Dr Gupta also disclosed that there is hardly any use of CT scan in paediatric patients except for few circumstances where diagnosing acute pneumonia is a problem.

The Centre has come out with comprehensive guidelines for the management of COVID-19 among children below 18 years of age in which Remdesivir has not been recommended and rational use of HRCT imaging (CT scan) has been suggested.

The guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the health ministry also said that steroids are harmful in asymptomatic and mild cases of infection.

Specifically, the guidelines also said Remdesivir is not recommended in children.

( With inputs from ANI )