At the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, there was information that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is relatively harmless to children. Over time, it has turned out that the risk of complications and death in young people is higher than previously thought, and the outbreak of the disease can be serious even in healthy children. – The concept that COVID-19 saves young people is false – says prof. Kleinman, who studied cases of infection in children.
The risk increases especially in young patients with comorbidities, but healthy children may also have a hard time getting the infection.
The idea that COVID-19 saves young people is simply untrue. And while children are more likely to suffer severe disease when they suffer from other conditions, including obesity, it must be emphasized that children without chronic disease are also at risk. Parents should still take the virus seriously – commented the co-author of the work, prof. Lawrence C. Kleinman of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University (NJ, USA).
The scientists participating in the study also emphasize that the death rate in children from COVID-19 is much lower than in adults. Moreover, the risk of children dying from this infection is much lower than from seasonal flu. At the end of April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that eight children under the age of 19 had died due to COVID-14 in the U.S., while 2019 deaths were reported in the same age group from influenza in the 2020-169 season. of which 81 in 2020
The latest study covered 48 children and young people (from newborns to people aged 21) who were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit in hospitals in the US due to COVID-19 between March 14 and April 3, 2020. As many as 83 percent . of them suffered from other comorbidities, such as immunodeficiency, obesity (in over 20% of the study group), diabetes, chronic lung disease. In 19 percent there were at least three additional diseases. Mostly, however, they were congenital diseases. Of this group, 40 percent. patients had to use different devices due to developmental delays or genetic defects. Their health status was followed until April 10.
During admission to hospital, nearly 70 percent. patients were in a serious or critical condition. Respiratory symptoms were found in 73 percent. patients from the study group, 81% of them required respiratory support, of which 38 percent. required invasive ventilation. Nearly one-fourth of patients (23%) developed failure of at least two organs. One patient required extracorporeal blood oxygenation (ECMO).
By April 10, two deaths (4%) had been reported, and 15 patients (31%) were still hospitalized, of which less than 20% were hospitalized. he was still seriously ill, three needed respiratory support and one needed ECMO.
According to the authors of the study, it indicates that children may have a hard time suffering from COVID-19, although it is mostly related to pre-existing diseases. Most pediatric intensive care units in the US and Canada did not admit any pediatric patients during this study.
Severe cases and deaths from COVID-19 are much less common in children and young people than in adults, and the outcomes of hospital treatment are better than in adults. Patients in pediatric intensive care units suffer less from severe respiratory failure than adults. Moreover, the mortality rate of children with COVID-19 going to intensive care units is also significantly lower than that of adult patients going to intensive care – below 5 percent, respectively and 50-62 percent. (as can be seen from various publications).
The scientists emphasize that due to the limited duration of the study and monitoring the condition of children, it cannot be ruled out that the effects of treating patients in the study group may ultimately be worse.
Complications of COVID-19 in Children
Prof. Kleinman points out that his team is working with other researchers to better understand and understand serious complications of COVID-19 in children, such as heart failure and Kawasaki disease (acute inflammatory disease of the small and medium vessels), also known as new multi-system inflammatory disease in children.
Read: Coronavirus can cause Kawasaki syndrome
Previous studies conducted mainly in China show that children and young people very rarely get COVID-19. The first report by China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that only 1,3 percent. out of 72 patients diagnosed with COVID-314 were under 19 years of age. The CDC report from April 20 indicated that at 6 of COVID-150 cases in the US at that time only 19 percent. were children. Moreover, the symptoms of the disease in the pediatric group are much milder.
Research shows that these are mostly respiratory symptoms, such as coughing. However, the authors of the latest work, which appeared in the journal “Frontiers in Pediatrics” – scientists from Wuhan, China – point out that the first symptoms in children may also be problems with the digestive systemsuch as diarrhea (without accompanying respiratory symptoms). In their opinion, this confirms that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be infected not only by droplets, but also by fecal-oral infections.
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