Childhood and Cancer: From An Expert
- Children with cancer have a higher risk of contracting coronavirus
- Talk to a child’s oncologist if hospitals are suspending visitation rights
- Have an honest talk with your child about safety during Covid-19
- FaceTime and Zoom are great virtual resources for talking to a loved one in the hospital
Dr. Puvri Parikh, an Immunologist at New York University (NYU) Langone Health, talked to SurvivorNet about the reality pediatric cancer patients are facing amid coronavirus. According to Dr. Parikh, children with cancer are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, despite the low number of pediatric deaths from the virus. This is due to their compromised immune systems as well as experiencing treatments that may further weaken immune responses.
Read MoreWhat Happens When A Child With Cancer Is Admitted To The Hospital?
Dr. Parikh says that many hospitals are limiting visitation due to threats of COVID-19, so it’s important to speak to the child’s oncologist to measure what level of visitation is safest. These limited visitations could lead to less visits from extended family members, such as grandparents, or deciding whether one parent should be with a child at once. Dr. Parikh encourages parents to ease their children’s fear by explaining that the limitations are for safety reasons. She also points out that there are a few ways to connect to a patient that is not face to face, such as using virtual platforms like FaceTime, Zoom, and others.“Because of technology we’re lucky,” Dr. Parikh says. “Social distancing is a little bit easier than it maybe would have been 20 or 30 years ago.”
According to American Cancer Society, childhood cancer rates have been slightly increasing over the past decade. Survival rates fluctuate depending on specific types of childhood cancer. However, major advances in treatment have led to an 84% survival rate as opposed to the 54% survival rate in the mid-1970’s.
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