Covid-19 and Medical News with Jeremy Kenton

This is Bay Radio

I'm Jeremy Kenton. The expected baby boom following COVID has not happened

The Royal College midwives were anticipating in the UK a vast increase in the number of births

and unfortunately hasn't happened. And in fact the exact opposite. The birth rate, which is normally fairly high in January, February, is actually lower than expected

which is prompted concern as to whether or not the population levels are going to be artificially lower because of COVID

Some people are suggesting that as divorce rates increase, as people have been trapped indoors with spouses and partners that they didn't want to be with

that this could be one of the reasons why the expected raise in birth rate has not happened

Most children don't become seriously unwell with COVID-19, and despite increased rates of infections in children over the autumn

school children and adolescents who tested positive were fairly low, but between one and five children in every 100,000 need admission to hospitals for COVID-19

and even fewer of these required admissions to an ICU unit. But there is a concern that a very small percentage, a very small proportion

and I do stress that it's small, may be suffering from pediatric, multi-system inflammatory syndrome

or PIMS for short. Now, this is a very rare condition affecting less than 0.5% of children

who have, or have had COVID-19, and most children will not be seriously affected

but in a very small number of cases, it can be serious. And children and young people who are affected

will have some symptoms, which are very similar to other life-threatening conditions

such as systemic sepsis or meningitis Doctors in the UK first started to see children suffering from PIMS in April of 2020 And studies found that the overall picture of this is that children with PIMS will have a high fever over 38 degrees

which will persist over several days, with other symptoms including stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting, a rash, cold hand, feet and red eyes

and the red eyes are a classic feature to look for and watch out for

And obviously the advice is if your child is ill, phone immediately for assistance

Don't leave it. Don't wait to see if things are going to get better. And studies have found that up to 28% of adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19

have also developed heart effects, usually myocardial damage, although most of these adults had pre-existing heart problems before

A study from the University of Edinburgh has found abnormal changes to the way the heart is working in over 55% of patients with the virus who were examined and with one in seven showing severe dysfunction

These issues are compounded by the cardiovascular health risks that have been made worse by the unusual lifestyle changes that people have had during lockdown as people are beginning to basically eat absolute rubbish

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused exponential growth in heart disease, and this is expected over the next few years

And it's known that COVID-19 can cause heart damage, but also it is causing issues where patients are delaying care for heart problems and stroke by not attending for hospital appointments or by hospital appointments being cancelled

Thank you