📍Our perception of #Health and Disease is filled with myths and if you put #Diet into this equation, you spawn an entire mythology, fake expertise, scare mongering, businesses, and needless deprivation of joys of just enjoying your food
1/n 📍These #myths are culturally so deeply ingrained in India, even qualified doctors and nutritionists perpetuate them, even depriving kids of ice creams and fruits they crave for by irrational prescriptive diets
Although a tough nut to crack, I will try to shatter these myths 👇

#COVID19 #covishieldvaccine #Covishield #AstraZeneca

Few points

📍#Covid_19 was an unprecedented global medical crisis

📍 Highly infectious, it resulted in a global pandemic in no time 📍Range of severity was asymptomatic to critical illness, death, long covid and worsening of diseases native to the patient

📍Globally Healthcare capacity was overwhelmed. This resulted in deaths, societal crisis and economic impact

In the wake of IPC issuing alert on potential adverse effects of #MefenamicAcid, should parents worry about using #Meftal syrups to treat #Fever in #Children?
Let us understand more about Fevers in children and Mefenamic acid.
A thread
via @indiatodayindiatoday.in/india/story/pa… What causes fevers?

Fever is body’s response to an infection. In children, it is most commonly due to viral infections. Rarely fevers have a non infectious inflammatory cause.

#ChildhoodAsthma and wheezing a 🧵

Childhood atopic asthma (cough, wheezing, breathlessness) is all too common
Stigma attached is doubly so, myths associated with inhalers and spacers is strongly ingrained, perpetuated acquiesced even by a proportion of paediatricians What happens in asthma?
Due to a viral or environmental trigger (pollen etc) the child develops reaction in his airways: smaller breathing tubes (bronchioles)in lungs constrict (muscle around them tighten) + smooth lining of these tubes become swollen and produce sticky mucus

#FeversInChildren

Since schools opened he’s constantly unwell
Is it normal for kids to get fevers every week?
There must be something you can give to boost her immunity?
He always has this cold,the cough hasn’t left him

We’re swimming high tides of cough, cold and fevers
1/n #KidsSickTooOften

Paediatricians across the country are running busiest of OPDs, juggling bed availability in wards and PICUs and even falling sick themselves more than ever before
Parents are at their wits end
Classrooms are half empty on some days 2/n

#monkeypox
1. Simply put, a milder version of smallpox, caused by a virus of the same family
2. Was endemic (low level regular occurrence) in some African countries, we now have a global spread but no known epidemiological source
3. Self limiting illness with low CFR (3-6%) 4. Illness can last 2-4 wk, could be more severe in kids and rare complications include eye scarring, secondary infections & pneumonia
5. Although contagious, intimate & prolonged contact with infected person or contact with body fluids directly or from linen etc is needed

#AntimicrobialResistance is a manmade disaster.
It is amongst the top 10 public health threats facing Humanity.
Available data analysed (for 2019)
4.95 M Deaths
189 M Years of Life lost
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
1/n Global burden of the disease due to AMR is huge, highest in Africa and South Asia
2/n

#OmicronI #Paediatric infections and admissions 1/n

What do we know from South Africa
-7% of infected kids needed hospitalisation
-18% of all hospital admissions were paediatric
-Paediatric admissions peaked prior to adult admissions
- 0 to 4 group needed most admissions 2/n South Africa (Contd)
- Short admission (mean of 3.2 days)
- 92% needed only ward care (NO HDU/ICU)
-25% needed some oxygen
- 6% needed ventilator care
Overall: early sharp increase in admissions especially 0-4 yo, but most needed short hospital stay and did well.

#ChildHealthMatters
#HealthyHabitsForLife
#ChildhoodObesity

Check: Is #BMI of your child healthy?cdc.gov/healthyweight/…

Global prevalence of #obesity doubled b/n 1990-2005 steep ⬆️ in school age kids
1 in 5 Indian child is obese - predicted 17 million will be by 2025 Ill effects of #childhoodobesity
Immediate - ⬆️BP/Cholesterol, joint/muscle problems, gall stones, heartburn, diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea
+ anxiety, depression, bullying, low self esteem
Long term - Risk of adult obesity/severe obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers

#ChildHealthMatters
Childhood #Asthma: not unusual to see some wishing it away. It’s stigmatised and poorly managed. Knowing triggers that can be avoided is the first step. Children need personalised Rx plan

9 Asthma Triggers and What to do About Them healthychildren.org/English/health… Let us take up:
1.Can you prevent #Asthma?
2. Can you cure Asthma?
3. Will my child get 'addicted' to inhalers?
4. You have prescribed steroids!!
5. Can I try alternative medicine/no medicine?

#ChildHealthMatters
Early Childhood Development (ECD) = critical period with consequences for lifetime. A thread:

The brain grows and develops in complexity at a phenomenal rate in first 2-3 years: forming new connections at an astounding rate of >1million per second! The baby's brain comes with a blue print: genes, but needs critical components to achieve its potential: 1. Nutrition 2. Protection 3. Stimulation The first #1000Days and a bit beyond are crucial for Nature and Nurture to play their role