While overall, children account for a smaller proportion of COVID-19 infections, a large retrospective US study has revealed how among those with the virus, the majority do not present with the usual symptoms.
The risks of adverse outcomes among children infected with COVID-19 are far less than those of adults. In addition, the classic COVID-19 symptoms such as cough and fever has been found to occur in only half of children infected with the virus. With the reopening of schools and the subsequent increased risk of community transmission, a team from the Division of Cardiovascular Disease, University of Alabama, Alabama, US, decided to retrospectively examine the clinical characteristics of children infected with COVID-19 using information derived from a multi-centre healthcare network electronic health database. The authors included paediatric patients with a positive PCR test, aged < 18 years and stratified the population based on their age and ethnicity. Information was also included on past medical history and if hospitalised, whether individuals required mechanical ventilation or other forms of critical care. The PCR positive individuals were propensity matched on gender and ethnicity.
Findings
The analysis included 12,306 children, 672 (5.5%) of whom were hospitalised and had a mean age of 9 years (51% male). Interestingly, only 25.1% of the sample had at least one of the classic COVID-19 symptoms (i.e., fever, cough or shortness of breath). The range of symptoms observed was considerable and included respiratory (16.5%) such as cough or dyspnoea, gastrointestinal (13.9%) e.g., nausea, vomiting, skin rashes (8.1%) and non-specific symptoms (18.8%) including fever, malaise, myalgia or disturbances of taste and smell. Among those hospitalised, 17.6% required critical care and 4.1% mechanical ventilation and there were less than 10 deaths. The risk of hospitalisation was higher in non-Hispanic black children compared with those of white ethnicity (relative risk, RR = 1.97 95% CL 1.49 – 2.61).
The authors described how children infected with COVID-19 appeared to display a wide range of non-specific clinical symptoms and that only a quarter of those actually had the classic COVID-19 symptoms. They suggested that this finding warranted a need for increased vigilance among healthcare professionals when seeing school-aged children who might be infected with the virus. They concluded that while children can develop severe illness after infection with COVID-19, fortunately this is uncommon.
Citation
Parcha V et al. A retrospective cohort study of 12,306 pediatric COVID-19 patients in the United States. Sci Rep 2021
