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Just catching a common cold can put Kai Barton in hospital for weeks, so his family is not taking any chances with coronavirus.
Key points:
- Children have been widely considered less vulnerable to COVID-19
- But for some with underlying conditions, there is a lack of information on the impact
- Panic buying by the public has made things harder for these families
The 12-year-old from Perth is one of Australia's 3,000 sufferers of cystic fibrosis (CF), a lung condition that has required him to undergo medical treatments since birth.
His father, Justin Barton, said the family was ready to relocate from the city to a friend's farm in Western Australia's Wheatbelt to protect him when the COVID-19 outbreak becomes too dangerous for them to manage.
"Look we could pack up and go tomorrow if we start to get a bad outbreak around the community," Mr Barton said.
"The main worry for us is obviously how contagious it appears to be.
"We are hearing in a lot of cases it develops into pneumonia and, for someone like Kai and the elderly and people who are susceptible, that's a very high risk."
Every day, a relentless treatment regime helps keep Kai's lungs and airways clear of the excessively thick mucus associated with CF.
As COVID-19 cases have increased, Mr Barton has been watching the Australian public gradually react to the public health emergency.
He said he was upset and disappointed after it was revealed recently that a woman who tested positive to coronavirus had attended an event at Perth Concert Hall after being tested.
"A lot of common sense needs to come back into the community," he said.
"They don't know who they are around, they don't know who they are going to pass it onto.
"I'm sure we all know someone who is either elderly or may have cystic fibrosis or going through other challenges in life.
"For someone like Kai, it can be a lot more serious and he's a lot higher risk of potentially getting very ill and potentially dying."
Impact on potentially vulnerable children unclear
Reports from China suggest children are being spared the worst of the virus and that severe complications are rare.
But Professor of children's respiratory health at Perth's Telethon Kids Institute, Stephen Stick, said there was an information void about the potential impact on children with pre-existing conditions.
"The children whose families are most concerned are those that have asthma, cystic fibrosis and perhaps the long-term consequences of pre-term birth who have a form of chronic lung disease," Dr Stick said.
"At the moment, there are no specific measures we can put in place to protect those potentially vulnerable children."
However, Dr Stick said these children were probably not any more likely to get the virus than other children.
"There are some questions though that need to be answered because of the way different children handle viruses depending on an underlying condition," he said.
"Which might mean that they aren't able to clear the virus as quickly from the respiratory tract and could potentially therefore have a more prolonged illness, and also become transmitters of disease for longer periods."
Dr Stick said the Institute was planning to begin research that would hopefully throw more light on the impact of the virus on children.
He said they would use samples that have already been taken from the airways of healthy children and children with asthma and CF, and compare their reactions to the virus.
"That can all be done with the samples already available to us, but we are just waiting now to get samples of the virus," he said.
Your questions on coronavirus answered:
The human cost of your panic buying
On top of the medical risk, the Australian public's reaction to the coronavirus pandemic has led to another unwelcome side effect for families with sick children.
Cystic Fibrosis WA said the panic buying phenomenon meant it had been unable to source any hand sanitiser to provide to the families it supports in Perth and beyond.
The foundation's chief executive, Nigel Barker, was unimpressed.
"Several of our members have contacted me to say they can no longer get hand sanitiser or toilet rolls," he said.
"What we would do is say to the general public, please leave these items on the shelves for people who really need them."
Another negative spin-off from the virus has been the cancellation of one of the charity's biggest fund-raising sources
HBF cancelled its 2020 Run for a Reason charity fun run earlier this week as a precaution.
"The fun run would generally bring in $30,000 to this organisation," Mr Barker said.
"People who were going to run in Run for a Reason, please look at other alternatives that can still provide those vital funds to organisations such as ourselves, so we don't have to cut services to people who really need them."
What the experts are saying about coronavirus:
Topics: infectious-diseases-other, charities, child-health-and-behaviour, perth-6000, wa
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