Chennai, Aug 2 (IANS): The Indian Association of Pediatrics (IAP), Tamil Nadu chapter in association with the state health department has trained nurses and doctors to manage Covid-19 in children. The training was conducted online.

Nearly 10,000 staff nurses and 3,800 pediatricians of government and private hospitals of the state were trained to manage Covid-19 in Children to date.

Dr K. Rajendran, State secretary of IAP, Tamil Nadu chapter while speaking to IANS said, "We are aiming to prepare close to 50,000 health care workers in the state to handle an expected third Covid wave. It is a known fact that a majority of nurses are hesitant to handle pediatric Covid-19 cases as they were uncertain on the patient's response to medicines."

The main aspect of the training, according to Dr Rajendran is to equip the nurses to understand how to manage the children and when to bring up the alert so that the mortality rates are low.

The training programme has four modules, triaging, clinical management, prevention, and overview of pediatric Covid.

With more Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) coming up, the Indian Association of Pediatrics wants to equip the nurses and doctors to handle this in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).

The IAP has already created a health task force that will support the health care workers across the state and an online app is being created. This online app will provide data of the number of oxygen beds, ICUs and on the availability of doctors in pediatric wards across the state.

Dr Ramesh Goutam, Pediatrician, with a Government hospital in Tirunelveli, told IANS, "The IAP has always been taking up novel measures to fight diseases and this is again a novel initiative on the part of the IAP to fight against the possible third wave of Covid-19 pandemic. We have already got training as well as nurses in our department."