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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

UNICEF Innocenti's curated library of COVID-19 + Children research

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46 - 60 of 70
Vaccinating adolescents and children significantly reduces COVID-19 morbidity and mortality across all ages: a population-based modeling study using the UK as an example

AUTHOR(S)
Tinevimbo Shiri; Marc Evans; Carla A. Talarico (et al.)

Published: October 2021   Journal: Vaccines
Debate persists around the risk–benefit balance of vaccinating adolescents and children against COVID-19. Central to this debate is quantifying the contribution of adolescents and children to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and the potential impact of vaccinating these age groups. In this study, we present a novel SEIR mathematical disease transmission model that quantifies the impact of different vaccination strategies on population-level SARS-CoV-2 infections and clinical outcomes. The model employs both age- and time-dependent social mixing patterns to capture the impact of changes in restrictions. The model was used to assess the impact of vaccinating adolescents and children on the natural history of the COVID-19 pandemic across all age groups, using the UK as an example. The base case model demonstrates significant increases in COVID-19 disease burden in the UK following a relaxation of restrictions, if vaccines are limited to those ≥18 years and vulnerable adolescents (≥12 years). Including adolescents and children in the vaccination program could reduce overall COVID-related mortality by 57%, and reduce cases of long COVID by 75%. This study demonstrates that vaccinating adolescents and children has the potential to play a vital role in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections, and subsequent COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, across all ages.
Attitudes of parents with regard to vaccination of children against COVID-19 in Poland: a nationwide online survey

AUTHOR(S)
Mateusz Babicki; Dagmara Pokorna-Kałwak; Zbigniew Doniec (et al.)

Published: October 2021   Journal: Vaccines
Within a few months, the scientific world achieved a great success, developing effective and safe vaccines against COVID-19. Many countries with full access to vaccines have introduced recommendations for the vaccination of not only people who are at risk of developing severe COVID-19, i.e., the elderly and chronically ill, but all members of society, including children aged 12 and above as the currently registered preparations can be used above the said age. However, the use of COVID-19 vaccines in children arouses strong emotions, with their sense being frequently questioned. The aim of the paper was to assess the attitudes of Polish parents with regard to vaccinations against COVID-19 administered to their children. The study was conducted with the use of the authors’ original questionnaire, which was distributed online.
Tracking the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine infant vaccinations in the Dominican Republic

AUTHOR(S)
Manuel Colomé-Hidalgo; Juan Donado Campos; Ángel Gil de Miguel

Published: October 2021   Journal: Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics
As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, millions of infants are unprotected against immune-preventable diseases due to interruptions in vaccination services. The direct effects of the pandemic, as well as the non-pharmacological interventions for its containment, mitigation and suppression adopted by many countries, have affected their vaccination programs. This is an ecological study analyzing the performance of the vaccination program in the Dominican Republic before (2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020). It compared annual public coverage data, analyzed trends and changes in coverage, dropout rate, and number of partially and unvaccinated infants by geographic area and COVID-19 incidence rate.
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on delayed/missed routine immunization in children (0-24 months) in Islamabad, Pakistan

AUTHOR(S)
Sabeen Abid Khan; Muhammad Imran; Rabia Tabassum (et al.)

Published: September 2021   Journal: Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health
It is very important to understand the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on routine immunization uptake in children in Islamabad, Pakistan. This cross-sectional study was done from November 2020 to January 2021. Children aged 0 to 24 months were enrolled from vaccination centers in public and private sector hospitals. In the private center vaccination services were suspended from March 20 2020 till August 2020. The public center continued to provide vaccination service during the lockdown. Delayed vaccination was defined as a lapse of 4 weeks from the due date. Children who had missed vaccination due to health issue or on doctors' recommendations were excluded.
Covid-19 vaccination during the third trimester of pregnancy: rate of vaccination and maternal and neonatal outcomes, a multicentre retrospective cohort study

AUTHOR(S)
M. Rottenstreich; HY Sela; R. Rotem (et al.)

Published: September 2021   Journal: BJOG

This study aims to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 vaccination (Pfizer–BioNTech BNT162b2) during the third trimester of pregnancy on maternal and neonatal outcomes.Women who received two doses of the vaccine were compared with unvaccinated women. Women who were recorded as having disease or a positive Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab during pregnancy or delivery were excluded from both study groups. Univariate analysis was followed by multivariate logistic regression.

COVID-19 in children and young adults with moderate/severe inborn errors of immunity in a high burden area in pre-vaccine era

AUTHOR(S)
A. Deyà-Martínez; A. García-García; E. A. Gonzalez-Navarro (et al.)

Published: August 2021   Journal: Clinical Immunology

Information regarding inborn error of immunity (IEI) as a risk factor for severe COVID-19 is scarce. This study aimed to determine if paediatric patients with moderate/severe IEI got COVID-19 at the same level as the general population, and to describe COVID-19 expression. It included patients with moderate/severe IEI aged 0–21 years old: cross-sectional study (June2020) to determine the prevalence of COVID-19; prospective study (January2020-January2021) including IEI patients with COVID-19. Assays used: nasopharyngeal swab SARS-CoV-2 PCR and SARS-CoV-2-specific immunoglobulins.

Junk food-induced obesity- a growing threat to youngsters during the pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Ankul Singh S.; Dhivya Dhanasekaran; Nila Ganamurali (et al.)

Published: August 2021   Journal: Obesity Medicine

Obesity has been declared an epidemic that does not discriminate based on age, gender, or ethnicity and thus needs urgent containment and management. Since the third wave of COVID-19 is expected to affect children the most, these children and adolescents should eat Junk foods to be more cautious during Covid situations due to the compromise of Immunity in the individuals and further exacerbating the organ damage. A pan India survey organized by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) among 13,274 children between the ages 9–14 years reported that 93% of the children ate packed food and 68% consumed packaged sweetened beverages more than once a week, and 53% ate these products at least once in a day. Almost 25% of the School going children take ultra-processed food with high levels of sugar, salt, fat, such as pizza and burgers, from fast food outlets more than once a week. Children and adolescents who consume more junk food or are addicted to such consumption might be even more vulnerable during the third wave, which will significantly affect the younger category.

SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses are lower in children and increase with age and time after infection

AUTHOR(S)
Carolyn A. Cohen; Athena P. Y. Li; Asmaa Hachim (et al.)

Published: July 2021   Journal: Nature Communications
SARS-CoV-2 infection of children leads to a mild illness and the immunological differences with adults are unclear. Here, we report SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses in infected adults and children and find that the acute and memory CD4+ T cell responses to structural SARS-CoV-2 proteins increase with age, whereas CD8+ T cell responses increase with time post-infection. Infected children have lower CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 structural and ORF1ab proteins when compared with infected adults, comparable T cell polyfunctionality and reduced CD4+ T cell effector memory. Compared with adults, children have lower levels of antibodies to β-coronaviruses, indicating differing baseline immunity. Total T follicular helper responses are increased, whilst monocyte numbers are reduced, indicating rapid adaptive co-ordination of the T and B cell responses and differing levels of inflammation. Therefore, reduced prior β-coronavirus immunity and reduced T cell activation in children might drive milder COVID-19 pathogenesis.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine childhood immunisation in Colombia

AUTHOR(S)
José Moreno-Montoya; Silvia Marcela Ballesteros; Jaid Constanza Rojas Sotelo (et al.)

Published: July 2021   Journal: Archives of Disease in Childhood

This article aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine childhood vaccination coverage in Colombia by age group, rural/urban residence, state and vaccine type. It is an ecological study of official monthly vaccination records.

Parental plans to vaccinate children for COVID-19 in New York city

AUTHOR(S)
Chloe A. Teasdale; Luisa N. Borrell; Yanhan Shen (et al.)

Published: July 2021   Journal: Vaccine
Once COVID-19 vaccines are approved for children < 12 years of age, high pediatric vaccination coverage will be needed to help minimize the public health threat from the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. We conducted an online survey of 1,119 parents and caregivers of children ≤ 12 years in New York City from March 9 to April 11, 2021. Among parents surveyed, 61.9% reported plans to vaccinate their youngest child for COVID-19, 14.8% said they do not plan to vaccinate their child and 23.3% were unsure. Female and non-Hispanic Black parents were least likely to report plans to vaccinate their children. Safety, effectiveness and perceptions that children do not need vaccination were the primary reasons for vaccine hesitancy/resistance. Parents who have or will vaccinate themselves were significantly more likely to report they would vaccinate their children.
Parental perspectives on immunizations: impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on childhood vaccine hesitancy

AUTHOR(S)
Kaidi He; Wendy J. Mack; Michael Neely (et al.)

Published: July 2021   Journal: Journal of Community Health
Childhood vaccine hesitancy has been studied extensively before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic presented new barriers to pediatric vaccinations. Furthermore, the development of COVID-19 vaccines has complicated factors underlying vaccine hesitancy. This study performed a cross-sectional mobile phone-based survey at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles querying parents regarding perspectives on vaccines before and during the pandemic. Its primary aim was to understand the impact of the pandemic on routine childhood vaccine hesitancy. Secondarily, it examined intent to vaccinate, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and key contributing demographic factors.
Humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal coronaviruses in children and adults in north-eastern France

AUTHOR(S)
Tom Woudenberg; Stephane Pelleau; Francois Anna (et al.)

Published: July 2021   Journal: EBioMedicine Home
Children are underrepresented in the COVID-19 pandemic and often experience milder disease than adolescents and adults. Reduced severity is possibly due to recent and more frequent seasonal human coronaviruses (HCoV) infections. This study assessed the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal HCoV specific antibodies in a large cohort in north-eastern France. In this cross-sectional seroprevalence study, serum samples were collected from children and adults requiring hospital admission for non-COVID-19 between February and August 2020. Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal HCoV (229E, HKU1, NL63, OC43) were assessed using a bead-based multiplex assay, Luciferase-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay, and a pseudotype neutralisation assay.
COVID-19 vaccines for children in LMICs: another equity issue

AUTHOR(S)
Beate Kampmann; Uduak Okomo

Published: July 2021   Journal: The Lancet Journal

Given the success of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing death and severe disease in adults and their impact on community transmission,  use in children and young people (CYP) inevitably requires consideration. Although severe COVID-19 is rare in CYP, they are affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including education, mental health, and general wellbeing. As of late July, 2021, no COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for children younger than 12 years and safety and efficacy data from phase 3 clinical trials are so far limited: 1131 CYP aged 12–15 years received the Pfizer–BioNTech mRNA vaccine and safety data are available from phase 1 and 2 trials of Sinovac's inactivated CoronaVac vaccine in 438 children aged 3–17 years. Safety data have been reassuring, with published data confirming excellent immunogenicity. There is no reason to believe the vaccines should not be equally protective against COVID-19 in CYP as they are in adults. More than 30 international trials are now recruiting CYP as young as 6 months to assess safety, immunogenicity, dosing, and scheduling questions.
Leukaemia and lockdown: The delayed infection model of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Katy Lillie

Published: July 2021   Journal: Pediatric Blood & Cancer
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common type of leukaemia diagnosed in children. The prevailing hypothesis regarding pathogenesis of childhood ALL was developed by Greaves, and states that ALL is caused by an abnormal immune response to a common infection. The response arises either due to naivety of the immune system caused by a lack of common childhood infections, or genetic susceptibility due to specific alleles. The former explanation is known as the delayed infection hypothesis. COVID-19 is a new infection that no children in the UK were exposed to prior to 2020. Furthermore, the lockdown measures designed to prevent spread of this virus have also greatly reduced spread of other common infections. It is therefore important to examine the evidence for this hypothesis, and to consider it in the context of the pandemic to determine what effect lockdown measures may have on incidence of ALL in children.
Early influenza vaccination rates decline in children during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Benjamin Fogel; Eric W. Schaefer; Steven D. Hicks

Published: July 2021   Journal: Vaccine

This investigation sought to determine whether early season rates of pediatric influenza vaccination changed in a season when there was a concurrent COVID-19 pandemic. This study used cohort and cross sectional data from an academic primary care division in Southcentral Pennsylvania that serves approximately 17,500 patients across 4 practice sites. Early season (prior to November 1) vaccination rates in 2018, 2019 and 2020 were recorded for children, age 6 months to 17 years.

Cite this research | Open access | Vol.: 39 | Issue: 31 | No. of pages: 4291-4295 | Language: English | Topics: Health | Tags: child health, child immunization, COVID-19, vaccination, vaccination policies | Countries: United States
46 - 60 of 70

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