Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Severe acute respiratory infections (SARIs) remain a leading cause of death globally, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Early intervention is critical, considering the potential for rapid decompensation in patients with SARIs. We aimed to evaluate the impact of acute and emergency care interventions on improving clinical outcomes in patients >10 years old with SARIs in LMICs. A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Global Health, and Global Index Medicus databases to identify peer-reviewed studies containing SARI, LMICs, and emergency care interventions. Studies published prior to November 2020 focusing on patients >10 years old were included. A narrative synthesis was performed due to the heterogeneity of identified articles. Risk of bias was assessed using the Risk of Bias 2 and Risk of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions tools.

There are concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the continuation of essential health services in sub-Saharan Africa. Through the Countdown to 2030 for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health country collaborations, analysts from country and global public health institutions and ministries of health assessed the trends in selected services for maternal, newborn and child health, general. Monthly routine health facility data by district for the period 2017–2020 were compiled by 12 country teams and adjusted after extensive quality assessments. Mixed effects linear regressions were used to estimate the size of any change in service utilisation for each month from March to December 2020 and for the whole COVID-19 period in 2020.

After the Covid-19 pandemics hit Brazil and sanitary measures were adopted to contain its dissemination, pediatric hospital admissions were apparently fewer than usual. The authors aimed to describe the time trends of public hospital admissions of children and adolescents due to respiratory infections (RIs) in São Paulo State, Brazil, before and after the adoption of sanitary measures to contain the dissemination of Covid-19. Ecological, time-series study on the monthly average number of admissions per day of children and adolescents (< 16 years) admitted to public hospitals of São Paulo due to acute RIs between January 2008 and March 2021. Data from 2008 to 2019 were used to adjust the statistical model, while data from 2020 and 2021 were compared to the values predicted by the model.

South Africa reported a notable increase in COVID-19 cases from mid-November, 2021, onwards, starting in Tshwane District, which coincided with the rapid community spread of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1.529) variant. This increased infection rate coincided with a rapid increase in paediatric COVID-19-associated admissions to hospital (hereafter referred to as hospitalisations). The Tshwane Maternal-Child COVID-19 study is a multicentre observational study which investigated the clinical manifestations and outcomes of paediatric patients (aged ≤19 years) who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and were admitted to hospital for any reason in Tshwane District during a 6-week period at the beginning of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa. It used five data sources, which were: (1) COVID-19 line lists; (2) collated SARS-CoV-2 testing data; (3) SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequencing data; (4) COVID-19 hospitalisation surveillance; and (5) clinical data of public sector COVID-19-associated hospitalisations among children aged 13 years and younger.