Karnataka: Omicron-infected girls experienced loss of taste and smell

Four teenage girls, a 13-year-old and three 14-year-olds, infected with Omicron virus in the state on Saturday experienced loss of taste and smell apart from fever, something that was not observed so far among the adult Omicron patients in the state. Adult patients mostly had scratchy throat, runny nose, fatigue and muscle pain.

Their unvaccinated status is of concern, said experts.

State authorities have announced that the girls have completely recovered and the Dakshina Kannada district health officials say they’re currently in the hostel of their government residential school in Mangaluru Rural.

Weighing in on paediatric manifestations of Omicron symptoms, Dr Rajath Athreya, senior consultant and HoD, Paediatrics and Neonatology, Sakra World Hospital, and a member of the state Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee said, “They might have slightly different symptoms. But it may not be a discriminator between adult Omicron and paediatric Omicron patients.

Also Read | Most vaccines unlikely to protect against Omicron infections, according to initial studies

“The Omicron spectrum is still evolving. In the previous second ‘Delta’ wave, out of 100 Covid patients treated, 60 would report loss of taste and smell. So, we shouldn’t be surprised if Omicron patient symptoms are mimicking those of Delta.”

Athreya said what paediatric experiences from South Africa (the epicentre of the Omicron outbreak) showed were that older children were not terribly unwell but young children less than four years of age required hospitalisation.

“Paediatric cluster containment is more important than individual patient management. From TAC, we already gave recommendations keeping in mind the Omicron threat like limited visitation, staggered meal time and close testing and monitoring. District administration should regularly go in to check that CAB (Covid appropriate behaviour) measures are in place.

We had suggested tracing 20 contacts for every case, if possible. In a setting like a residential school, everyone in the hostel and those who came in should be tested,” he said.

The state tested 79 primary contacts of these girls and 203 secondary contacts out of whom 13 tested positive.

On possible risks unvaccinated status of children poses to them, he said, “In South Africa, the vaccination coverage in adults also was in single digit in percentage terms. All age groups saw hospitalisation but under-four kids needed more. This was the initial trend, we need to wait and watch.

Clinically, we are not very worried about children but if the number of kids needing hospitalisation increases, our capacities will be tested,” he added.

Dr G V Basavaraj, Professor of Paediatrics, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, who is the only paediatrician on the 17-member Omicron clinical expert committee had earlier told DH, “After two to six weeks of recovery from Covid, there are chances of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). We will need methylprednisolone injections, IV Immunoglobulins, ICU beds, and oxygen delivery devices.”

"We had 187 high dependency beds, 176 PICU beds, and 78 ventilators, for children in October. Since then not much ramping up has been done but preparations are underway," he said.

Check out DH's latest videos