Karnataka studying gene variations in Covid-19-hit children: Report

In a bid to prepare for a possible third wave of Covid-19, scientists in Karnataka are studying the genomic sequences of the Covid-19 virus in children infected in the second wave.

Upon the advice of the Covid-19 advisory board of the Karnataka government, the state government has taken measures to study the infection in children in the second wave to find out the variant of the virus -- if it’s an existing variant or a new one.

“Samples are now being collected and they need to be processed. We should have data and information in about 15 days,” Prof V Ravi, the nodal officer for genome sequencing in Karnataka, told The Indian Express.

Also read — Start genomic sequencing of children’s Covid-19 samples: Karnataka Technical Advisory Committee

“We have discussed the issue of infections among children and some additional work is required to study the genomic sequencing of viruses from samples of children,” Prof M K Sudarshan, a public health expert and chairman of the state technical advisory committee, told the publication.

This is in line with efforts to prepare for the next wave of Covid-19 in the country in which the children may be at higher risk. In the research, the scientists are considering severely infected Covid-19 positive children like international travellers, local infection clusters, and vaccinated children who got infected later.

Recently in a talk, Prof Ravi mentioned, “My greatest fear for the third wave is that it will affect children. It is simply common sense. We are immunising the elderly, the middle-aged are being immunised and immunisation has started for the young but there is no vaccine for children. The virus will always find a susceptible host. History has taught us that.”

“The virus is constantly mutating. Viruses also follow the principle of survival of the fittest and they will go on mutating and the immune escape variant will be selected in the population,” Prof Ravi added.

Out of all the positive cases in the first and second wave, as much as 10 per cent were between the age group of 0-19 years old. Then the case fatality in that group was 0.1 per cent, however, the mortality rate has increased by four per cent in the 0-9 age group and by six per cent in the 10-19 age group.