Medindia LOGIN REGISTER
Medindia
Advertisement

Over Eleven Lakh Children Lost Their Caregivers Due to COVID-19: Study

by Saisruthi Sankaranarayanan on Jul 23 2021 11:52 AM

COVID-19 left many children without caregivers. Over eleven lakh children have lost either their parents or caretakers as a result of COVID-19.

Over Eleven Lakh Children Lost Their Caregivers Due to COVID-19: Study
Children around the world have faced adverse outcomes of the COVID-19. Over eleven lakh children have lost a parent or custodial grandparent due to Covid-19, found a new study.
The study findings were based on the analyses performed using the mortality and fertility data of Covid-19-associated deaths of primary or secondary caregivers for children younger than 18 years in 21 countries. Parents and custodial grandparents were taken as primary caregivers, and co-residing grandparents or older kin were considered as secondary caregivers in the study.

An estimated secondary attack rate and age-specific death ratios for SARS-CoV-2 were used to cluster the deaths due to the pandemic.

The findings showed that

• Over eleven lakh children lost a parent or custodial grandparent due to Covid-19

• Of these, 10,42,000 children lost their mother, father, or both

• The countries that were highly affected by this issue include Peru, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Iran, the USA, Argentina, and Russia

Advertisement
• In India, 25,500 children lost their mother to Covid-19 while 90,751 lost their father and 12 lost both their parents

According to the authors, these deaths constitute a hidden pandemic that poses a serious threat to the kids' mental health. Children who have lost a caregiver are also more vulnerable to the risk of disease, physical abuse, sexual violence, and adolescent pregnancy than those who have caregivers.

"Accelerating equitable vaccine delivery is key to prevention. Psychosocial and economic support can help families to nurture children bereft of caregivers and help to ensure that institutionalization is avoided. These data show the need for an additional pillar of our response: prevent, detect, respond, and care for children," they highlighted.



Source-Medindia



Home

Consult

e-Book

Articles

News

Calculators

Drugs

Directories

Education

Consumer

Professional