THE Covid-19 killed two children under the age of five in Brazil per day since the beginning of the pandemic. In all, 1,439 children in this age group died from the disease in the first two years of the pandemic in the country.
This is what a survey carried out by Observa Infância shows in partnership with the Fiocruz, based on data collected in the Mortality Information System (SIM) of the Ministry of Health .
In 2020, there were 599 deaths of children up to five years old as a result of the disease. In 2021, when the lethality of the disease increased across the population, the number of child victims jumped to 840.
Half of the registered deaths are concentrated in the Northeast region of the country.
Preliminary data released by the Epidemiological Bulletin of the Ministry of Health indicate that the average of two daily deaths remains this year. Between January and June 13, 2022, Brazil recorded a total of 291 deaths among children under 5 years old.
Data from 2020 and 2021, analyzed by the coordinators of Observa Infância, Cristiano Boccolini and Patricia Boccolini, underwent review by the Ministry of Health and the State and Municipal Health Departments.
The analysis of these first two years of the pandemic in Brazil shows that children aged 29 days to 1 year are the most vulnerable.
Professor and epidemiologist Patricia Boccolini, from the Faculty of Medicine of Petrópolis (UNIFASE/FMP), warns of the urgency of approving the vaccine for this age group.
“Babies in this age group account for almost half of the deaths recorded among children under 5 years old. It takes speed to bring vaccine protection to babies and children, especially from 6 months to 3 years. Every day that we go without a vaccine against Covid-19 for children under 5, Brazil loses 2 children”, points out Patricia.
the pharmaceutical pfizer informed that it is already preparing the documentation to request the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) the approval for the release of the vaccine against Covid-19 for babies over 6 months to children aged 5 years.
Last week, the United States began immunizing children under five against the coronavirus. The US health agency expanded emergency use authorizations for Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to include children in this age group.
Fiocruz Public Health researcher Cristiano Boccoli explains that the data refer to infant deaths in which Covid-19 was recorded as the underlying cause and to those in which the disease is one of the causes of death, that is, the infection worsened some condition. preexisting risk or was associated with the main cause of death.
“In the analysis of Observa Infância, we also considered deaths in which Covid-19 worsened a pre-existing condition. I mean, although not all of these children died from Covid-19, they all died from Covid-19”, explains the researcher.
Not all countries record coronavirus deaths with information by age group. As of June 2022, data collected by Unicef in 91 countries show that Covid-19 was the underlying cause of death for 5,376 children under 5 years of age worldwide. Brazil accounts for about 1 in 5 of these deaths.
The researcher also draws attention to the fact that Brazil accounts for more than triple the deaths of children under 5 years old recorded in the United States.
“The Anointed States register just over 500 deaths to date. Even in proportional terms, Brazil has a higher mortality rate from Covid in this age group”, he highlights.
Boccolini attributes the high number of deaths compared to other countries to the lack of control of the pandemic and the inequality of access to health services between regions of the country, such as the offer of intensive care beds, for example.
Source: CNN Brasil