Díaz-Canel called to be more careful with children to prevent them from catching the dangerous disease.   Photo: Archivo/RHC

Havana, March 10 (RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stressed on Wednesday that experts are studying the effects of COVID-19 in younger patients.  On his Twitter account, he noted that in one year of the pandemic, neither children nor adolescents have died from this disease in the country, however, more than 6,300 have been infected -- and 270 in the last 48 hours.

The president received the information from Dr. Lissette López González, head of the National Pediatrics Group, during another meeting with scientists and experts working on confronting the new coronavirus.

Dr. Lopez Gonzalez commented that in this third wave of contagions, the number of pediatric patients requiring intensive care has been significant: 51, between serious and critical.

Referring to the after-effects on their mental health, she explained that of the 1,289 who have been studied, a little more than 32 percent developed risky behaviors when they became ill, such as over-consumption of technologies, rebellious and defiant behavior, willfulness, excessive attachment, irritability, fears and nightmares.

Another 14.1 percent had some psychopathology from the COVID-19 illness event, including separation anxiety disorders, depression, phobias, panics and transient tics.

"With rapid therapeutic intervention, these problems have been reversed and there have been no permanent psychological sequelae," the doctor explained.

From the biological point of view, the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the health of infants and adolescents has also been determined, which breaks the initial myths and shows that children do get sick and carry symptoms over time.