3 Questions for Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse, MPH ’16
Pediatric Infectious Diseases Physician, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
In addition to helping the Mayo Clinic Children’s Center prepare to care for children with COVID-19, Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse, MPH ’16, works with the Mayo Clinic News Network to create and disseminate accurate information to the general public. She has been consulted and interviewed by local, national, and international media outlets including NPR and USA Today, and you can watch her Mayo Clinic videos on YouTube.
What are some of the most common questions you’re getting from the public?
As we were learning about this virus and pandemic in the medical and public health arenas, the general public was learning about it right along with us. Everyone’s gotten a crash course in public health very quickly. In the beginning, there were a lot of basic questions: What is this virus? How does it spread? What are the symptoms and what should I do if I think I’m sick? In this current phase, most of the questions that we’re getting are around reopening: What can I do to protect myself as we start moving towards going back to work or opening up businesses?
What are we learning about COVID-19 in kids?
We know that kids tend to have mild or moderate symptoms, if they develop symptoms at all; few require admission to a hospital. We’ve also learned about kids who are presenting—usually a few weeks after infection with SARS-CoV-2 virus—with what can be a severe, life-threatening illness characterized by inflammation that affects multiple organ systems in the body. Thankfully it appears to be a very rare complication.
Multidisciplinary collaboratives have been quickly set up to figure out how best to treat children that become critically ill with COVID-19. Most of the current clinical trials have excluded pediatric patients, so it is important that we work together with other children’s hospitals in the United States and around the world to collect and share knowledge.
What other issues is this pandemic bringing up among children?
The impact of the pandemic on mental health in children has been huge given how much it has disrupted their daily lives and routines. We’ve seen increases in symptoms of anxiety and depression in kids. Parents are also struggling with immense pressures associated with loss of income and jobs or trying to work from home while also homeschooling their children. Kids and families who depend on schools for some of their meals have experienced food insecurity. Seeing schools and communities rally to help meet these needs has been heartwarming.
One of the big concerns for pediatricians has been the interruption of routine childhood medical visits. We really don’t want to start seeing outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles due to kids falling behind on their vaccinations. It is understandable that parents may feel nervous about taking their kids in, but clinics around the country have now had time to put measures in place to protect kids and families. We want to encourage parents to get their kids’ vaccines updated, and also to continue to get routine care to avoid issues down the road.
We have also been seeing delayed presentations for illnesses that could have been less severe if a child was brought to medical attention sooner. We need to get the message out that if your child is sick, if you are worried, please do call your health care provider or seek medical care sooner rather than later.