Pediatric cardiologists are urging parents not to be afraid to take their children suffering from heart ailment to a hospital or clinic for a face-to-face consultation.
At the “Usapang Puso sa Puso’s Mommy sa Mommy” webinar, Dr. Aurora Gamponia, Philippine Heart Association director and from the Philippine Heart Center’s Pediatric Department, said medical checkups of non-COVID-19 cases have already increased as infection cases continue to decline every day.
But children with heart diseases whether congenital or acquired are at a greater risk to get COVID19 and are more symptomatic, she said.
Dr. Shela Ruffert, PHA member from Western Visayas, urged parents to closely monitor the entire well-being of their children, including their dental conditions.
She raised the alarm that cavity-causing microbes could invade the heart tissue of a child with a heart ailment, causing dangerous and sometimes lethal infection.
Gamponia believes that the COVID-19 pandemic is “going to its recovery,” advising parents and children not to be intimidated to visit a heart doctor in a medical facility.
“Hospitals and clinics are safer than going to a mall. There, we enforce social distancing, and limit our time and days of clinic hours to avoid congestion. It is important that we can physically examine those children so that the illness would not progress,” she said.
Dr. Monette Pasumbal, past PHA president for Mindanao-Davao, said “it is important to educate the public, particularly parents whose children have heart problems, on what they should closely monitor.”
She said many child heart patients could not consult a doctor in a hospital or clinic during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She, however, said she has observed a low incidence of respiratory infection since most children had to stay at home during the series of community quarantines.