Background The incidence of COVID-19 is still rapidly increasing, but little is known about the prevalence and characteristics of fatal cases in children in Indonesia. This study aims to describe the characteristics of pediatric COVID-19 cases with fatal outcomes in Indonesia's tertiary referral hospital. Methods This is a cross-sectional study with data collected from the medical records of COVID-19 patients admitted to Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia, from March to October 2020. Results During the study period, 490 patients were admitted and diagnosed with suspected and probable COVID-19. Of these patients, 50 (10.2%) were confirmed to have COVID-19, of which 20 (40%) patients with positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 had a fatal outcome. The fatality was higher in patients ≥10 years old, categorized with severe disease upon admission, with PaO 2 /FiO 2 ratios of ≤300 mmHg and chronic underlying diseases. The most common clinical manifestations were generalized symptoms, while acute respiratory distress syndrome (8/20) and septic shock (7/20) were the two most common causes of death. Increased procalcitonin, D-dimer, lactate dehydrogenase, and presepsin levels were found in all fatal COVID-19 cases. One patient met the criteria of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Conclusion Our work highlights the high mortality rate in pediatric patients positive for the COVID-19 test. Further studies are needed to understand better the role of SARS-CoV-2 in elaborating the mechanisms leading to death in children with comorbidities.

Background While the number of cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is increasing, reported cases in Asian countries are still low, particularly in Indonesia. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of patients with MIS-C in a tertiary referral hospital in Indonesia. Methods This is a cross-sectional study with collected data of patients with MIS-C admitted to Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo from March 2020 to April 2021. Results The first case of MIS-C was detected 5 months after the first reported coronavirus disease 2019 case in Indonesia. Thirteen patients out of 158 positive admitted patients for COVID-19 were diagnosed with MIS-C during the study period. Of these 13 patients, 2 patients (15%) had a fatal outcome. Subjects were predominantly male, and the median age was 7.58 years (IQR 12.3) years. Most patients required mechanical ventilation (7 out of 13 patients) and intubation (8 out of 13 patients). Patients who needed intubation usually needed mechanical ventilation. All inflammatory markers, white blood cells, neutrophil counts, and all coagulation factor parameters (except for normal prothrombin time and activated partial prothrombin time) were elevated. The median time to MIS-C diagnosis was 2 days in the survivor group (n = 11) compared to 8.5 days in the non-survivor group (n = 2). Compared to the non-survivor group, those who survived spent more days in the hospital, received vasopressors earlier, and did not require mechanical ventilation as early as the non-survivors. Conclusions Our work highlights the differences in MIS-C clinical course, treatment, and clinical outcomes between the two groups.

BackgroundThus far, Indonesia has recorded over 4,000,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 144,000 fatalities; 12.8% of cases have been in children under 18 years. Whole-genome viral sequencing (WGS) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been demonstrated to help differentiate hospital-acquired infection from community-acquired coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Our study highlighted the use of WGS to investigate the origin of infection among pediatric oncology patients in Jakarta. The aim of our study was to evaluate clinical and laboratory characteristics and also the efficacy of using WGS to confirm hospital-acquired COVID-19 infection in a cluster of immunocompromised children within a single ward of a tertiary hospital in metropolitan Jakarta based on quasispecies, viral load, and admission dates.MethodReal-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs was used to diagnose the patients and also guardians and healthcare workers (HCWs) in the ward, followed by WGS of RT-PCR positive cases to establish their phylogenetic relationships.ResultUsing WGS, we showed that SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a cluster of children with underlying malignancy was characterized by high similarity of whole virus genome, which suggests nosocomial transmission.