KUALA LUMPUR: Parents have been advised to be alert for any physical symptoms on their sick children and particularly to look out for any signs of Covid-19 co-infection.
Dr Ajit Pal Singh Raina said parents should look out for symptoms that could indicate the presence of other viruses.
"They may think it is just the flu (virus), but their children could actually be co-infected with Covid-19 and the flu, or other viruses.
"Listen to your child if they complain of lethargy or muscle aches," said the vaccine specialist from Pharmaniaga Berhad.
Dr Ajit was one of three panelists at a webinar titled 'The Needs and Benefits of the Covid-19 Vaccine For Children and Booster Doses for Adults', today.
Other panelists included Chile Health Ministry chief epidemiologist Dr Rafael Ignacio Araos Bralic, and Sinovac China medical affairs director Dr Gao Yongjun.
He said the multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) was a real threat among children, especially with the increase in Covid-19 infections caused by the Omicron strain.
It was reported that there was 1 MIS-C case per 3,200 infections in children, he said, and there was an increase in the number of daily bed usage for pediatric patients aged 0-11 years old in Health Ministry hospitals.
"Some symptoms of MIS-C include chest pain, fever, vomiting, dehydration and breathlessness.
"MIS-C infection is very difficult to manage and is a nightmare for a pediatrician in hospitals."
Dr Ajit said vaccination take-up for children was still low, as many parents were not aware of complications from Covid-19 among children.
He added that there was a need to ramp up the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) and vaccinate the remaining children in the country.
Pharmaniaga, he added, was in the process of submitting new data from China to the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) to vaccinate children under the age of five.
"Children are precious, yet only 50 per cent of them are vaccinated. We know the cases among those aged 5 to 11 are high, and there could also be co-infections.
"Our intensive care units and hospitals are receiving pediatric patients. This can be prevented and parents should go and get their kids vaccinated against Covid-19," he added.
Dr Ajit also reminded the public that it was important to receive their booster shots for Covid-19.
He said there was still a substantial number of adults and elderly who had yet to receive even their first booster shot.
"The take-up for the second booster is very low, but we would need to focus on the first booster.
"We need to get the remaining population to take their booster shots first, before we can start pushing for the fourth jab to be administered," he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Rafael said Chile rolled out the first booster dose four to five months after the second Covid-19 dose.
At that time, he said, there was low Covid-19 activity in the country.
"The Delta wave was very mild in the country compared to other places.
"We rolled out the fourth dose (second booster) about five to six months after the third, during the Omicron outbreak with high disease activity, and we had more deaths due to Omicron than we expected.
"Based on my observation, we were a bit late in rolling out the fourth dose. My recommendation is to go for it four to six months after the last dose, when there is low disease activity," he added. - NST
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