COVID-19 in Children

Authors

  • Pornumpa Bunjoungmanee Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
  • Detchvijitr Suwanpakdee Pediatric Infectious Unit, Department of Pediatric, Phramongkutklao Hospital, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

Keywords:

COVID-19, Children, MIS-C, SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a pandemic in many countries necessitating the employment of massive public health responses. Clinical manifestations of children with COVID-19 are typically less severe than adult patients. Most children with COVID-19 remain asymptomatic or become mildly symptomatic. However, children can also get severely ill from COVID-19. Infants who are under the age of one year and children with preexisting comorbidities may be more likely to develop severe illness and are at an increased risk for hospitalization and critical care. Rarely, COVID-19 may result in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). The pathogenesis involves post-infectious immune dysregulation which can result in potentially serious illness in children. Currently, there are no antiviral treatment options or immunomodulatory drugs with proven efficacy for children with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Supportive care is the mainstay of therapy for all pediatric patients.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Sargent TH, Muller WJ, Zheng X, Rippe J, Patel AB, Kociolek LK. Age-related differences in nasopharyngeal severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) levels in patients with mild to moderate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). JAMA Pediatrics. 2020;174(9):902-903.

Yonker LM, Neilan AM, Bartsch Y, et al. Pediatric severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): clinical presentation, infectivity, and immune Responses. J Pediatr. 2020;227:45-52.

Laws RL, Chancey RJ, Rabold EM, et al. Symptoms and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among children-Utah and Wisconsin, March-May 2020. Pediatrics. 2020;146(6):2020027268.

Posfay-Barbe KM, Wagner N, Gauthey M, et al. COVID-19 in children and the dynamics of infection in families. Pediatrics. 2020;146(2):20201576.

Wu Q, Xing Y, Shi L, et al. Coinfection and Other Clinical Characteristics of COVID-19 in Children. Pediatrics. 2020;146(1):20200961.

Maltezou HC, Magaziotou I, Dedoukou X, et al. Children and adolescents with SARS-CoV-2 infection: epidemiology, clinical course and viral loads. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2020;39(12):388-392.

Macartney K, Quinn HE, Pillsbury AJ, et al. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Australian educational settings: a prospective cohort study. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2020;4(11):807-816.

Brandal LT, Ofitserova TS, Meijerink H, et al. Minimal transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from pediatric COVID-19 cases in primary schools, Norway, August to November 2020. Euro Surveill. 2021;26(1):2002011.

Falk A, Benda A, Falk P, Steffen S, Wallace Z, Høeg TB. COVID-19 cases and transmission in 17 K-12 Schools-Wood County, Wisconsin, August 31-November 29, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2021;70(4):136-140.

Ulyte A, Radtke T, Abela IA, et al. Clustering and longitudinal change in SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in school children in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland: prospective cohort study of 55 schools. BMJ. 2021;372:616.

Leidman E, Duca LM, Omura JD, Proia K, Stephens JW, Sauber-Schatz EK. COVID-19 trends among persons aged 0-24 years - United States, March 1-December 12, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2021;70(3):88-94.

Kim L, Whitaker M, O'Halloran A, et al. Hospitalization rates and characteristics of children aged < 18 years hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-COVID-NET, 14 States, March 1-July 25, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(32):1081-1088.

Havers FP, Whitaker M, Self JL, et al. Hospitalization of adolescents aged 12-17 years with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-COVID-NET, 14 States, March 1, 2020 - April 24, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2021;70(23):851-857.

Chen N, Zhou M, Dong X, et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):507-513.

Information for pediatric healthcare providers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/pediatric-hcp.html. Accessed June 15, 2021.

Cui X, Zhang T, Zheng J, et al. Children with coronavirus disease 2019: A review of demographic, clinical, laboratory, and imaging features in pediatric patients. J Med Virol. 2020;92(9):1501-1510.

Götzinger F, Santiago-García B, Noguera-Julián A, et al. COVID-19 in children and adolescents in Europe: a multinational, multicenter cohort study. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2020;4(9):653-661.

Xia W, Shao J, Guo Y, Peng X, Li Z, Hu D. Clinical and CT features in pediatric patients with COVID‐19 infection: Different points from adults. Pediatric Pulmonology. 2020;55:1169-1174.

Mannheim J, Gretsch S, Layden JE, Fricchione MJ. Characteristics of hospitalized pediatric coronavirus disease 2019 cases in Chicago, Illinois, March-April 2020. Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2020;9(5):519-522.

Hoang A, Chorath K, Moreira A, et al. COVID-19 in 7780 pediatric patients: A systematic review. EClinicalMedicine. 2020;24:100433.

Payne AB, Gilani Z. Godfred-Cato S, et al. Incidence of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children among US person infected with SARS-CoV-2. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(6):2116420.

Flood J, Shingleton J, Bennett E, et al. Pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS): Prospective, national surveillance, United Kingdom and Ireland, 2020. Lancet Reg Health Eur. 2021;3:100075.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and adolescents with COVID-19: Scientific Brief. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications-detail/multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-in-children-and-adolescents-with-covid-19. Published 2020. Accessed July 17, 2021.

Information for healthcare providers about multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Centers for disease control and prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/mis-c/hcp/. Accessed June 15, 2021.

Godfred-Cato S, Bryant B, Leung J, et al. COVID-19-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children-United States, March-July 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69:1074-1080.

Whittaker E, Bamford A, Kenny J, et al. Clinical characteristics of 58 children with a pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2. JAMA. 2020;324(3):259-269.

Feldstein LR, Tenforde MW, Friedman KG, et al. Characteristics and outcomes of US children and adolescents with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) compared with severe acute COVID-19. JAMA. 2021;325(11):1074-1087.

Swann OV, Holden KA, Turtle L, et al. Clinical characteristics of children and young people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in United Kingdom: prospective multicenter observational cohort study. BMJ. 2020;370:3249.

COVID -19 treatment guidelines. The national institutes of health. https://www.covid 19 treatment guidelines.nih.gov/special-populations /children/. Accessed June 15, 2021.

McArdle AJ, Vito O, Patel H, et al. Treatment of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. N Engl J Med. 2021;385:11-22. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2102968.

Downloads

Published

2021-10-29

How to Cite

[1]
Bunjoungmanee, P. and Suwanpakdee, D. 2021. COVID-19 in Children. Asian Medical Journal and Alternative Medicine. 21, - (Oct. 2021), S40-S49.