Shanghai pediatricians share COVID-19 learnings with foreign peers

Shanghai pediatricians on Thursday evening shared their hands-on experience of treating COVID-19 child patients with their peers from the United States, Portugal, India and several African countries via a video conference.

Five experts from the Shanghai-based Children's Hospital of Fudan University, where child cases of COVID-19 in the city were treated, talked about their latest research results regarding the novel coronavirus, practices to prevent the spread of the virus and their experience with medical solutions and medications for child patients.

The Chinese experts, who specialize in different areas, including infectious diseases, surgical oncology, gastroenterology and medical affairs management, also answered queries from their overseas counterparts during the video conference which was hosted by the hospital and Fosun Foundation.

According to the Chinese experts, most child patients in China showed mild symptoms of respiratory diseases or common pneumonia during observation. They also found that most children became infected after at least one adult in the family was infected. In addition, the incubation period among children was on average 6.5 days, longer than the 5.4 days for adults.

"Through such discussions with overseas experts and doctors, we hope to contribute to better protection for the health of children around the world amid the pandemic," said Xu Hong, Party secretary of the Children's Hospital of Fudan University.

During the video conference, Isabel Vaz, CEO of Portugal's Luz Saude healthcare group, shared about the organization's experience in patient treatment and virus containment.

Yao Fang, co-chairman of Fosun Pharma and chairman of Fosun Healthcare, said that Fosun's efforts in helping the world curb the spread of the virus has entered a new stage. The group had organized the first of such online video conferences between Chinese experts and their overseas peers earlier this month as many overseas medical institutions requested to learn from Chinese experts.