Thirty-seven percent of children and adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 had neurological symptoms, a study conducted by National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) found.
Two of them had a stroke after developing encephalitis, the hospital told a news conference on Friday morning to promote COVID-19 vaccinations for children.
NTUH Department of Pediatrics director Lee Wang-tso (李旺祚) said the hospital worked with more than a dozen other hospitals to established a reporting system for people aged 18 or younger who were diagnosed with COVID-19.
Photo courtesy of the National Taiwan University Hospital via CNA
Among the 1,163 cases in its database, 404 were hospitalized, 148 of whom, or 37 percent, exhibited neurological symptoms, including 13 cases, or 9 percent, with suspected or confirmed encephalitis, he said.
Of the 13 juvenile cases, two had a stroke, Lee said, adding that they recovered after treatment.
One of them is a 12-year-old boy who developed weakness in the right leg and a fever after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, Lee said, adding that pathological changes were found in his blood vessels, the left side of his brain and his right frontal lobe.
The boy’s limb weakness improved after treatment, he said.
The other case is an eight-year-old boy, who developed a fever, convulsions and abnormal liver function after being diagnosed with COVID-19, he said.
The child developed inflamation and local ischemia, and pathological changes were found in his blood vessels, Lee said.
The boy recovered after receiving intravenous immunoglobulin and remdesivir, and was discharged from hospital, he added.
Lee said the data showed that the risk children infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 develop encephalitis or encephalitis-like symptoms is nearly 10 times higher than for children infected with the initial variants of the virus.
Although children who have the disease rarely have a stroke, pathological changes in their blood vessels pose an increased risk that should not be neglected.
Nearly half of the cases examined using magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed cerebral vascular changes, Lee said.
Children are also at risk of developing multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) after recovering from acute COVID-19, he said, adding that this risk should not be neglected either.
Department deputy director Chang Luan-yin (張鑾英) said that most of the cases in the database were unvaccinated.
However, as the vaccination rate among children aged five to 11 has increased, fewer cases have been reported, Chang added.
National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital superintendent Huang Li-min (黃立民) said that vaccination is the most important way to prevent severe COVID-19 complications and MIS-C, so the hospital encourages parents to bring their children to get vaccinated as early as possible.
Additional reporting by CNA
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS