Of the nine cases of COVID-19 that have been reported from the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka so far, the case of the ten-month old infant is by far, the most interesting.
On 27 March, a baby in Sajipanadu village of Bantwal was reported as having tested positive for coronavirus, after displaying symptoms of fever and respiratory illness. Of the family members, the child’s mother and grandmother, its primary contacts, have tested negative after early tests were done. Ramachandra Bayari, District Health and Family Welfare Officer told The Quint, that the remaining 13 members of the child’s family had been asymptomatic and kept in quarantine and self-isolation.
“The baby is stable and healthy and recovering. 14 days of quarantine of the child will be complete on 5 April. We will conduct tests on the 14th and 15th day, and discharge the child if the test comes negative. For the remaining family members, so far they are fine, we will conduct a test for them on the 12th day of quarantine, and depending on the result, discharge them from quarantine,” he said.
Dr Bayari also said it could have been a case of sub-clinical infection, where the either the mother, grandmother or one of the family members could have passed on the virus to the child, without displaying symptoms themselves. “The virulence of the virus could have reduced. We are still hunting for the source,“ he said.
Calling the case ‘interesting’, the DHO said that there could be multiple epidemiological reasons behind the infant being the only one to contract COVID-19.
“Where the family lives is a border village between Kasargode and Karnataka. There may have been some contact with someone who came from Kasargode, someone might have visited them. Highly possible since there used to be a lot of movement across the border,” he said.
Deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district Sindhu Rupesh said that Sajipanadu village had been completely shut off and quarantined. “This case is a bit different, investigation is on,” she said.
‘Family Members Could Have Transmitted the Virus’
Dr Sumit Ray, a critical care specialist in Delhi said that that large number of family members meant that any of them could have contracted the virus and transmitted it without showing any symptoms.
However, the DHO did clarify that only the mother and grandmother would regularly come close enough to the child while feeding and playing.
Dr Ray however pointed out that even though the mother and grandmother had tested negative, a lot depended on the accuracy of the tests themselves.
“Where is the sample taken from? From the nasal area accuracy is 60-70%, from the throat it is 33% chance of being positive. The sensitivity of the tests is not so much. Such cases are uncommon but not rare,” he said.
Dr Ray noted that serological tests would be able to reveal if the mother or any other family member had passed on the virus without exhibiting symptoms. “If she contacted and didn’t show symptoms, the immune system would have shown it in some way or another. A serological test to see the antibody build up would inform us of this without her ever testing positive,” he said.
He added that it was completely common for kids to contract the virus. “People think that kids can’t get it. That’s not true. They just don’t get serious cases and tend not to display a lot of symptoms, making them perfect carriers. People need to stop thinking of coronavirus as some devilish, unfathomable virus that cannot be treated. It behaves much like influenza,” he said.
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