Dear IPNA Members,
Kim Yap has asked me to chair an IPNA Covid Initiative, and of course, this pandemic has become an overall priority! By April 3, we had an estimate of 1,300,000 infected people and 56,000 has died.
Children have a significantly lower risk and less symptoms. Some hypotheses have been proposed: i) the maturity and function of ACE2 in children may be lower than that in adults, ii) immune system is still developing, and may respond to pathogens differently to adults, iii) possible cross immunity of Covid-19 with other common coronaviruses in this age group, and iv) other underestimated reasons.
However, risk factors have also been identified in children, mainly obesity and immunosuppression. This means that many of our renal patients are at-risk and IPNA would like to help.
We all receive a lot of information about the pandemic and this IPNA Covid Initiative aims at providing our website with specific information about children with CKD, dialysis and transplant, using several languages.
We hope this initiative will help and we would appreciate your comments.
Keep safe!
All my best,
Pierre Cochat, MD PhD