To the Editor, The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly spread across the globe, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic in mid-March of 2020. In the pediatric age group, symptomatic COVID-19 has been mostly reported in children with inborn errors of immunity (IEI), chronic lung disease, and heart disease. 1 Patients with IEI can be expected to have more severe illness. Moreover, due to weak cellular immunity and viral control, more severe disease is expected in patients with combined immunodeficiencies than in those with humoral defects. 2 However, other authors have proposed that the opposite may be expected in immunocompromised patients. In children with IEI, the lack of the pro-inflammatory cytokine storm implicated in the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19 may protect these patients from multiple organ failure. 3 Therefore, we aimed to determine the incidence and clinical severity of COVID-19 in IEI patients under follow-up in our hospital. Patients who were followed up or newly diagnosed with IEI in our clinic between September 1, 2019, and October 1, 2020, were included in the study. The patients' parents were called and asked whether the patient had COVID-19 or had contact with anyone with COVID-19. The patients' results from viral tests including reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of a nasopharyngeal sample and IgM/IgG antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 were recorded. Indications for hospitalization and treatment were determined based on the pediatric patient management and treatment guide from the Turkish Ministry of Health.
Objective: Children with food allergy need special care. Therefore, parents of food allergic children usually seek information on the internet to improve their knowledge. However, the quality and accuracy of internet-based information may vary and misdirect parents in their daily practices. Materials and Methods: We aimed to investigate the habits of internet usage in the families reporting cow's milk protein allergy or multiple food allergy in their children. This study was conducted by using a web-based questionnaire that can be completed on the Internet in Facebook groups of families who stated that their children had diagnosis of food allergy. Results: A total of 458 (96% female) individuals with a mean age of 32.03 ± 4.49 years participated in our survey. Three hundred forty three (74.9%) participants reported that they have preferred the internet to get information associated with the complaints of their children before seeing a physician. Two hundred ninty five (64.4%) participants reported that the information obtained on the internet and the information provided by the physicians were sometimes contradictory. As regards the contradicting information, 147 (49.8%) participants reported that they relied on the information provided by the physicians, whereas, 43 (14.9%) reported that they relied on the information on the internet. In addition, 44.3% stated that they always or most of the time gave advice to other patients and their families on the internet. Conclusion: Considering that social media use is an unpreventable habit, online sources should include correct information for information-seeking parents and should possibly be supervised or be certified by health institutions and organizations.
<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> There are a limited number of studies about the clinical findings of coronavirus infection in pediatric patients with asthma. We aimed to evaluate the clinical and laboratory characteristics of pediatric patients with asthma and healthy children without chronic disease who infected with SARS-CoV-2. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This is a retrospective, case-control study comparing the asthma diagnosed and healthy children who were diagnosed as COVID-19 in our hospital between March 11 and November 10, 2020. <b><i>Results:</i></b> During the study period, 6,205 children were diagnosed with COVID-19 in our hospital. Only 54 (0.87%) patients had a diagnosis of asthma. The mean of the age was 10.5 years and 53.7% (<i>n</i>:29) of the patients with asthma were male. Cough, shortness of breath, emesis, and diarrhea were found to be significantly higher in asthma group than in the control group (respectively <i>p</i> = 0.002, 0.000, 0.002, 0.019, 0.015). Patients who were given SABA was significantly higher in asthma diagnosed patients (<i>p</i> = 0.000). Hospitalization was significantly higher in asthma group (<i>p</i> = 0.025), and the duration of hospitalization was significantly higher in control group (<i>p</i> = 0.034). There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of requiring oxygen treatment and in laboratory findings between groups. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> This study revealed that pediatric patients diagnosed with asthma were in a mild clinic. According to these findings, asthma may not affect the course of the COVID-19 in children.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.