Milder illness in children

NEJM, 23rd April, SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children

Review of 72,314 cases by the Chinese Center for Disease Control

90% of children were from a family cluster

Less than 1% of cases in children younger than 10 years

Wuhan Children’s Hospital, the only hospital for treating infected children under 16 Wuhan.

Both symptomatic and asymptomatic children with known contacts

The clinical outcomes were monitored up to March 8, 2020.

1391 children assessed 171 (12.3%) were confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The median age of the infected children was 6.7 years.

Fever was present in 41.5% of the children at any time during the illness.

Cough and pharyngeal erythema common

27 patients (15.8%) did not have any symptoms of infection or radiologic features of pneumonia

12 patients had radiologic features of pneumonia but did not have any symptoms of infection

3 patients required intensive care support and invasive mechanical ventilation; all had coexisting conditions, hydronephrosis, leukemia, intussusception

As of March 8, 2020, one death, (10-month-old child with intussusception)

21 patients were in stable condition in the general wards

149 have been discharged

Most infected children appear to have a milder clinical course

Asymptomatic infections were not uncommon

Lymphopenia (lymphocyte count, less than 1.2×109 per liter) was present in 6 patients (3.5%)

The most common radiologic finding was bilateral ground-glass opacity (32.7%)

Lancet study on Chinese numbers
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30089-X/fulltext

NEJM Children
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2005073?query=TOC