Pune: The increase in Coronavirus cases recently in several countries in some countries has encouraged several experts to pitch for their vaccination, but the national technical advisory group about immunization (Ntagi) has decided to adopt the waiting and watching policies about the problem.
“We do not want to rush into it because the country has not witnessed one death among children under 12 years because of the virus.
In addition, lack of access to the MRNA vaccine has made us decide to wait,” Dr.
Jayaprakash Muliyil, one of the members ntagi , told TI on Wednesday.
“Vaccination of children should not be a priority now.” The leading epidemiology, which is a professor at CMC Vellore, said they would choose to adopt the waiting and watching policies about vaccination for children.
He said studies carried out both domestically and outside have shown that covid death among children is rare.
“We have registered death among children because of cancer, leukemia and other diseases, where underage children are tested positively.
But deaths cannot be associated with Covid-19,” he said.
“Moreover, the vaccine is currently approved for children by Zydus Cadila is a DNA vaccine.
But it hasn’t been tried in adults.
We should not be in a hurry and adopt the policy of waiting and watching up to more vaccines, and more results of trials among children -The child is clear, “said Muliylar.
“Until now, the country must focus on vaccination of adults and we as groups will quietly observe and then recommend whether vaccination must be permitted for children, depending on needs.” Virologist Dr.
Gagandeep Kang said until there was a high coverage among those aged in older age groups and those who had comorbidity, there was no reason to see the vaccination of children.
“In the end, we will vaccinate children despite the risk of severe disease in low children.
But we must have access to other vaccine platforms as well, especially the MRNA vaccine used in other parts of the world.
There is also concern that if we allow vaccination for Children, we will lose focus on those who are more vulnerable, parents and those who have comorbidity, “he said.
“Given the amount of low vaccination in India, the lack of availability of what might be a better platform, and high seropositivity levels in most places, except Kerala, I think we are able to wait.” However, experts the tasks of state children and children’s specialists hoped the decision to vaccinate children will be taken soon.
Child Specialists and Task Force Members of Dr.
Pramod JOG said that there was a need to start the vaccination of children early.
“All children (not vaccinated) are cohorts that are vulnerable to Covid-19 (from any variant).
While children at and large only have minor diseases, a small number of them can be quite painful to require hospitalization (as it has been seen In South Africa lately), “he said.
He said despite the protection of Covid-19 through vaccination is not easy, it can still reduce the severity of the disease in children, and thus prevent the burden on health care services.
“Even though this disease may be mild in children, they can act as a reservoir to infect adults who may have worse consequences and increased morbidity and mortality,” JOG said.
Although children have shown sero-prevalence of antibodies around 70% even without vaccination, if the new variant appears to have an immune runaway mechanism to cause infection in it, it can only be reduced by vaccination, he said.
A member of the task force added that the DNA Zycov-D vaccine was safe for children in the age group 12-18, while the MRNA vaccine was used in children abroad.