Amid the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in India, driven by a subvariant of Omicron XBB.1.16, there is an increased risk of conjunctivitis in children under one year of age, according to a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study Is. The study, led by Vipin M. Vashisht, a member of WHO’s Vaccine Safety Net, is based on 25 children seen in the OPD of a pediatric hospital in Uttar Pradesh between April 4-16.
Vashisht, who is also a consultant pediatrician at Mangala Hospital and Research Center in Bijnor, UP, wrote in the study, “Our preliminary findings show a greater involvement of younger infants than older children and that mild respiratory illness may be associated with other presentations.” gives priority.”
“An interesting finding was the presence of itchy, non-purulent conjunctivitis with mucoid discharge and stickiness of the eyelids in 42.8 percent of positive infants,” he said. Importantly, none of the children required hospitalisation. All recovered with symptomatic treatment, he said in the paper published on the preprint site Medrxiv.
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Describing the cases on Twitter, Vashisht said that the current COVID-19 outbreak is characterized by a mild febrile illness lasting only 1-3 days. Respiratory symptoms predominate in young infants, he said, and the youngest case was a 13-day-old newborn.
He wrote on Twitter, “Young infants are disproportionately more affected than older children. The youngest infant was a 13-day-old newborn.” “Infants under one year of age had a significantly higher positivity rate (40.38 percent versus 10.5 percent) than older children,” he said.
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16 to a COVID-19 “Variant of Interest” (VoI) due to “sustained enhancement” and “growth advantage” reported from several countries.
XBB.1.16 is a descendent of XBB, which is a recombinant of two BA.2 descendents. XBB.1.16 was first reported on January 9 this year and was designated a Variant Under Monitoring (VUM) on March 22.
So far 3,648 sequences of Omicron XBB.1.16 version from 33 countries including India have been reported on the open research platform GISAID, a global health body.
“Following a sustained increase in the spread of XBB.1.16 and reported growth gains from several countries, WHO classifies XBB.1.16 as a VOI,” Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead for Covid-19 Response at WHO, on Friday he said.
Van Kerkhove noted that XBB.1.16 showed a “growth advantage and immune escape”. While “no change in severity has been reported, it can cause a whole range of illness”, she said, adding the need to “remain vigilant”.