ROME, 13 JAN – 76% of hospitalizations in the medical area between the ages of 5 and 18 concern unvaccinated patients. And 69% of the admissions in the intensive area of children up to 4 years concern children whose parents are not vaccinated. These are some of the most significant data that emerge from the Aopi survey, the Association of Italian Pediatric Hospitals, which has activated a weekly monitoring system for Covid patients – children and adolescents – hospitalized in both the medical and critical areas. The data collection, carried out by the fifteen most important Italian realities in the field of care of the little ones and the very young, will serve to provide an updated picture of the progress of hospitalizations in pediatric age and the severity of the clinical conditions of young patients. A control tool that will be useful in order to provide useful data for making strategic decisions. The data collected in the first monitoring concern the day of Monday 10 January: in the main Italian pediatric hospitals there were 212 children hospitalized in all: 192 in the medical area and 20 in the intensive area. These are much higher numbers than those recorded during the previous three waves of the epidemic and indicate that children are now more affected by the virus than in the past, although fortunately, in most cases, the symptoms remain mild. Of the 212 children hospitalized, 134 are in the age group between 0 and 4 years while 78 are between the ages of 5 and 18. The vaccination variable weighs significantly on the severity of the infection: out of 13 very small patients admitted to intensive or sub-intensive care, as many as 9 have unvaccinated parents. “These data – explains Alberto Zanobini, president of Aopi – push us to launch an appeal with conviction: it is important to vaccinate all children as soon as possible. And for those who are in an age group that still cannot access vaccination, it is important that parents protect them by getting vaccinated ”. (HANDLE).
(ANSA)
