Youngsters’ Cases Characteristics

1. Longer incubation period was seen in children, thus reinforcing usage of preventive control interventions in time;
2. Majority of positive patients had a confirmed case in their family members;
3. Asymptomatic infections are more frequent than in adults;
4. The most common finding in chest computed tomography (CT scan) was bilateral ground-glass opacity;
5. Patients with pre-existing comorbidities could increase the risk of more severe illness requiring ICU or invasive mechanical ventilation, but some patients admitted to the ICU were healthy;
6. In some patients, viral RNA could still be detected in the feces within 18-30 days after the first symptoms, proposing another viral replication site.

 Jiehao, Jing and Daojiong’s manuscript evaluated 10 pediatric patients from three months to ten years old admitted and hospitalized to the Children’s Hospitals in Shanghai, Hainan, Hefei and Qingdao. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 was done with nasopharyngeal and throat swab and was positive for every patient. Children were also tested for influenza A and B. Lu’s observational study tested a total of 1391 children presented at Wuhan Children’s Hospital. The 171 of them that were positive were recruited. The aim was to look at the clinical outcomes. Wu’s work is a viewpoint summarizing key findings from a large case series in China. Tagarro performed an observational study on 365 children screened for COVID-19 in Madrid, Spain.

Sources:

1. 1. 1. Cai Jiehao, Xu Jing, Lin Daojiong and al. (February 28, 2020). A Case Series of children with 2019 novel coronavirus infection: clinical and epidemiological features. Clinical Infectious Diseases, , ciaa198. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa198
      2. Jiatong, S., lanqin, L. and Wenjun, L. (2020), COVID‐19 epidemic: disease characteristics in children. J Med Virol. Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:1002/jmv.25807
      3. Xiaoxia Lu and al. (March 18, 2020). SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children. New England Journal of Medicine. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2005073
      4. Wu Z, McGoogan JM. Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72 314 Cases From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. JAMA. Published online February 24, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.2648
      5. Tagarro A, Epalza C, Santos M, et al. (April 8, 2020). Screening and Severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Children in Madrid, Spain. JAMA Pediatr. Published online. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1346