Covid-19 In Children: A Single Centered Study
Main Article Content
Abstract
Introduction: There is limited data available on the epidemiological features, clinical manifestations, and transmission patterns in children with COVID-19, although there has been widespread information available regarding COVID-19 in adults. The objective of our study was to report our experience in the management of children admitted with COVID-19 to our hospital.
Materials & Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the in-patient records of all children 18 years of age admitted to our COVID-19 facility during the period March 2020 till May 2021. Detailed information including demographic data, travel and contact history, living conditions and overcrowding, symptoms, and presence of co-morbid conditions were noted. The clinical symptoms, physical findings, laboratory readings and imaging data were similarly noted and analysed.
Results: During the study period a total of 67 children (30 males and 37 females) with a mean age of 11.88 4.35 years were admitted to the COVID-19 facility. The presenting symptoms were fever (71.64%), skin rashes (14.93%), breathlessness (7.46%), cough (31.34%), cold (2.99%), headache (8.96%), sore throat (25.37%), loose motions (26.87%) and vomiting (8.96%). The RT-PCR was positive in 60 (89.55%) children. Sixty-one (91.045%) children recovered over a period of 10-14 days and were discharged. Six (8.955%) children died due to multisystem failure. When compared to the children who recovered, the children who died had a significantly raised serum ferritin, IL 6, C reactive proteins, D-Dimer levels, and Sr LDH.
Conclusions: COVID-19 has been affecting children, more so in the second wave, with increased hospitalizations and mortality.
Article Details
The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.
References
2. #Indiafightscorona Covid-19 - MyGov.in. https://www.mygov.in/covid-19/. Accessed January 21, 2023.
3. Al Jazeera. India's Covid Crisis 'beyond heartbreaking': Who. Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/26/india-sets-new-covid-world-record-for-5th-straight-day-live-news. Published November 9, 2021. Accessed January 21, 2023.
4. Sarangi B, Reddy VS, Oswal JS, et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in Indian children in the initial phase of the pandemic. Indian Pediatrics. 2020;57(10):914-917. doi:10.1007/s13312-020-1994-4.
5. Sarangi B, Reddy VS, Oswal JS, et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in Indian children in the initial phase of the pandemic. Indian Pediatrics. 2020;57(10):914-917. doi:10.1007/s13312-020-1994-4
6. Donnelly CA, Ghani AC, Leung GM, et al. Epidemiological determinants of spread of causal agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Hong Kong. The Lancet. 2003;361(9371):1761-1766. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(03)13410-1
7. Cauchemez S, Fraser C, Van Kerkhove MD, et al. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: Quantification of the extent of the epidemic, surveillance biases, and transmissibility. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2014;14(1):50-56. doi:10.1016/s1473-3099(13)70304-9
8. Coronavirus disease (covid-19) situation reports. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports. Accessed January 21, 2023.
9. The Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Emergency Response Epidemiology Team None; The epidemiological characteristics of an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) - china, 2020. China CDC weekly. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34594836/. Accessed January 21, 2023.
10. Qiu H, Wu J, Hong L, Luo Y, Song Q, Chen D. Clinical and epidemiological features of 36 children with coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) in Zhejiang, China: An observational cohort study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2020;20(6):689-696. doi:10.1016/s1473-3099(20)30198-5
11. Meena J, Yadav J, Saini L, Yadav A, Kumar J. Clinical features and outcome of SARS-COV-2 infection in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Indian Pediatrics. 2020;57(9):820-826. doi:10.1007/s13312-020-1961-0
12. Coronavirus disease 2019 in children - United States, February 12-April 2, 2020. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32271728/. Accessed January 21, 2023.
13. Chen Y, Peng H, Wang L, et al. Infants born to mothers with a new coronavirus (COVID-19). Frontiers in Pediatrics. 2020;8. doi:10.3389/fped.2020.00104
14. Patel NA. Pediatric covid-19: Systematic review of the literature. American Journal of Otolaryngology. 2020;41(5):102573. doi:10.1016/j.amjoto.2020.102573
15. Jain S, Sen S, Lakshmivenkateshiah S, et al. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children with covid-19 in Mumbai, India. Indian Pediatrics. 2020;57(11):1015-1019. doi:10.1007/s13312-020-2026-0.
16. Nerli R, Sanikop A, Sharma M, Ghagane S. Covid-19 pandemic: A Challenge to a child with cancer. 2020. doi:10.22541/au.159076935.53810399