5-day-old baby from Kulgam youngest victim of COVID-19 in J&K

SRINAGAR — A five-day-old baby from Chadder village in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district is the youngest victim of COVID-19 in Jammu and Kashmir.

As per reports, a new born five-day-old baby girl tested positive at Chest Diseases Hospital a few days after her mother was tested positive for the deadly pandemic.

Block Medical Officer (BMO) Qaimoh, Kulgam, Dr Abdul Gani said that that they were taken by an utter surprise to see that the newborn has tested positive for the virus. “Both, mother and the baby are asymptomatic and are undergoing treatment at Government Medical College (GMC) Anantnag,” he said.

The doctor said that the frequent visits of pregnant ladies to hospitals and clinics are making them more vulnerable to COVID-19 and as seen today, newborn babies are also getting affected now, which is a cause of worry.

Pertinently, few days ago, a 20-day-old baby from Satwari area of Jammu had tested positive.

Official figures suggest that there are around 20 percent of COVID-19 positive patients in J&K who are between the age group of 0-19. However, none in this age group has died here so far.

Noted virologist and Associate Professor Medicine GMC Srinagar, Dr Nisarul Hassan said that as of now, there is no convincing evidence whether the baby is transmitted the virus within the womb of his/her mother.

“It seems that newborn is transmitted the virus soon after the birth while being handled by the COVID infected mother. The virus gets transmitted after the baby is handled within 24 to 48 hours. Second, to find out whether the baby transmits the virus within mother’s womb, there is a need to test the placental tissue, cord sampling or amniotic fluid sampling of the COVID positive mother. If maternal foetus transmission is proved, then that’s a disaster, that’s a disaster then,” Dr Nisar said.

He, however, said mother’s milk doesn’t carry virus for the newborn. “But pregnant ladies need not to worry as in literature, there is no evidence of maternal fatal transmission. As for the virus in infants, so far it has behaved very mildly”.