Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The study aimed to analyse the clinical course of COVID-19 in 300 infants, selected from 1283 children diagnosed with COVID-19 between March and December 2020, registered in the SARSTerPED multicenter database. Most of the infants were registered in October and November 2020. 44% of the group were girls, and 56% were boys. At diagnosis, the most common symptoms were fever in 77% of the children, cough in 40%, catarrh in 37%. Pneumonia associated with COVID-19 was diagnosed in 23% of the children, and gastrointestinal symptoms in 31.3%. In 52% of the infants, elevated levels of D-dimers were observed, and in 40%, elevated levels of IL-6 serum concentration were observed. During the second wave of the pandemic, 6 times more infants were hospitalized, and the children were statistically significantly younger compared to the patients during the first wave (3 months vs 8 months, p < 0.0001 respectively). During the second wave, the infants were hospitalized for longer. COVID-19 in infants usually manifests as a mild gastrointestinal or respiratory infection, but pneumonia is also observed with falls in oxygen saturation, requiring oxygen therapy.

 COVID-19 has become a major public health crisis around the world. This study aimed at identifying the different clinical presentations of children who were tested positive for SARS-COV-2. Descriptive and prospective study of the children who were seen over the fever clinic and were admitted to the Sapthagiri institute of medical science and research centre over a period of 4 months from November 2021 to February 2022. Among the 251 children admitted to the hospital majority of them were males 52.5% and the age group of 1-5 years were highest affected 46.2%. The most common symptoms noted were fever 60.5%, followed by pain abdomen 45.8%, vomiting 43.8%, running nose 39%, cough 38%, diarrhoea 30.6%, decreased appetite 26.7% and the least common symptom was skin rash 0.3%. Children with comorbidites had higher risk of ICU admission. No deaths were noted during the study period.

Since January 2022, almost 150 cases of acute hepatitis with epidemic features have been reported among children aged 1-15 years old, mostly below 5 years old. A wide range of symptoms has appeared, but a subset of these children has progressed to liver failure and required liver transplantation and at least one death has been reported already.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected our health, social behavior, and quality of life. In addition to the deaths and morbidity, the crisis also affects all spheres in society. The objective of this study was to assess the perception of hospital patients and families regarding the pandemic. This is a descriptive study conducted May-July 2020 in the Sant Joan de Déu children’s hospital, Barcelona, Spain. We developed a mix-method approach. It included online semi-structured interviews and photo voice. Seventeen patients’ representatives were interviewed.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on health occurred in all age groups including pregnant women, mothers giving birth, and newborns. Breastfeeding during a pandemic requires special attention because of the short-term and long-term health implications. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the success of exclusive breastfeeding. The research design is qualitative with in-depth interview data collection methods on 7 participants. The sample was selected according to the inclusion criteria, namely mothers who gave birth during a pandemic and when data were collected on children aged 6-12 months in the working area of the Kepanjen Health Center, Kab. Poor. Researchers as the main instrument in the study and interview guides as a reference for questions.

The COVID-19 virus is highly contagious primarily via aerosol transmission and has a high mortality rate. On March 13, 2020, the United States declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to enumerate the effect of the pandemic on vaccination rates during the COVID-19 lockdown and the aftermath in pediatric patients aged 6weeks-6 years. A retrospective review of medical records was performed of missed well childcare visits at MetroHealth from March 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. The sample size of 400 children aged 6 weeks to 6 years were randomly selected. Demographic data, number of calls made to attempt, scheduled WCC, no show rates for clinic appointments, number of missed WCC, location of MH facility, insurance type, vaccination status prior to the pandemic were collected. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software (IBM Corp. Released 2020. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp).

Almost half of exposures reported to United States (US) poison centers are exploratory ingestions in children under the age of 5 years. Pediatric cannabis exposures reported to US poison centers have risen over the last twenty years, with greater increases in the last 5 years. In 2020, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in widespread stay-at-home orders and subsequent changes in work, education, and daycare. This study describes the changes in pediatric cannabis exposures during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic relative to the three years before the pandemic.

Obesity is a well-recognized risk factor for critical illness and death among adult patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. This study aimed to characterize the clinical outcomes and risk factors of death related to obesity in a cohort of hospitalized paediatric patients with COVID-19. It performed an analysis of all paediatric patients with obesity and COVID-19 registered in SIVEP-Gripe, a Brazilian nationwide surveillance database, between February 2020 and May 2021. The primary outcome was time to death, which was evaluated by using cumulative incidence function.

Parents of the COVID -19 positive hospitalized children are facing different psychological stresses which are affecting child’s care and well-being.
This study aims to determine the psychological stress, anxiety and depression and to identify the associated influencing factors in mothers of hospitalized COVID-19 infected children. In this cross-sectional observational study, 150 mothers of COVID-19 positive hospitalized children in a paediatric tertiary care hospital were randomly selected and studied. Data collection tool was a two part questionnaire; the first part was based on ‘Perceived stress scale-10’ and ‘Hospital anxiety and depression scale’ and the second part included stressors related to COVID-19 pandemic selected based on previous researches. The incidence of these stressors and their significance in causing stress, anxiety and depression was assessed using standard statistical methods.

Limited data are available on the attitudes of caregivers toward COVID-19 vaccination in children and adolescents with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection or Long Covid symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate the vaccine hesitancy among caregivers of children and adolescents with a documented history of SARS-CoV-2 infection and to explore the possible associations between COVID-19 manifestations and the acceptance of the vaccine. Caregivers of children or adolescents with a microbiologically confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection evaluated in two University Hospitals were interviewed.

Limited data is available from low-middle and upper-middle income countries of the factors associated with hospitalization or admission to pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for children with COVID-19. This study aims to describe the factors associated with hospitalization or PICU admission of children with COVID-19 in Latin America. Multicenter, analytical, retrospective study of children reported from 10 different Latin American countries to the Latin-American Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (SLIPE-COVID) research network from June 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021. Outpatient or hospitalized children <18 years of age with COVID-19 confirmed by polymerase chain reaction or antigen detection from the nasopharynx were included. Children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) were excluded. Associations were assessed using univariate and multivariable logistic regression models.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 mitigation measures on the total number of consultations for respiratory and gastrointestinal infections among children under 16 years in Thai Binh Pediatric Hospital, Vietnam during the year 2020. A retrospective study was carried out to review consecutive consultations occurring in children admitted from January 01, 2016 to December 31, 2020. All medical records were collected from the central numeric database of the hospital. Diagnoses were documented according to the International Classification of Diseases 10 criteria.

The rapid worldwide spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections led to public health crises globally and the number of pediatric patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still rising. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and imaging features of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 at an Iranian referral pediatrics hospital and to compare these parameters between hospitalized patients with and without severe disease, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and children with acute COVID-19, as well as deceased and discharged cases. This study included hospitalized children and adolescents (≤ 18 years) with suspected COVID-19 who had positive results for SARS-CoV-2.