Infection dynamics of COVID-19 in children of Bangladesh

Abstract

unavailability of vaccines under 12 years of age in Bangladesh for a long-time during the pandemic. Moreover, as children are not developing many severe symptoms, they did not get priority in empirical studies regarding their COVID-19 infection dynamics. Therefore, this web-based cross-sectional study was conducted aimed to explore the COVID-19 infection status and associated factors among the 372 children in Bangladesh by snowball sampling approach. Adjusted and Unadjusted Odds Ratio (95% CI) were calculated for the specified exposures and a multivariate logistic regression model was used for the analytical exploration. The study revealed that 53.5% of subjects were RT-PCR test positive and 12.9% test negative while 33.6% were found suspected/healthy who did not perform any confirmatory test. Among the asymptomatic cases, 9.4% found tested positive. In addition, children with mild (6.7%) moderate (7.3%), and severe (0.8%) symptoms did not undergo any test. Alarmingly, three of the 30 cases with severe symptoms were found not to do any confirmatory test and suffered much and needed oxygen or ventilation support. Test-positive infection status was found significant among the children with lower educated mothers (AOR/P= 2.74/0.05; 95% CI: 0.97- 7.67) and those who got contact with an unidentified source of infection (AOR/P=3.49/0.02; 95% CI: 1.22-9.98) or suspected family members (AOR/P=1.87/0.27; 95% CI: 0.62- 5.70). Finally, the unique findings portray an alarming scenario for the children in Bangladesh during the current pandemic. It indicates the reluctance of guardians which may be due to a lack of screening support from health care facilities. Policymakers need to be much more concerned about such issues through the implementation of specific intervention programs on the basis of empirical findings from the studies regarding such health problems. Therefore, the health security of children can be achieved and the fatal consequences of the recent pandemic may be combated through such strategies.