SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents: a Brazilian experience

Abstract

Objective: To describe clinical and epidemiological aspects of children and adolescents infected with the SARS-CoV-2 in the Municipality of Taubaté, SP, from March to November 2020. Methods: Cross-sectional study with secondary data obtained from the Epidemiological Surveillance System about confirmed cases in city residents and from medical records of patients who were treated in hospitals in Taubaté, aged between 0 and 19 years. Chi-square and Student’s t tests were used for comparisons. Results: 677 cases in the studied age range were reported during the study period, corresponding to 10.1% of cases reported in the municipality. The rapid antibody test was the most used to confirm infection, followed by RT-PCR and serology. Symptoms were described in 57.7% of the cases, mainly fever and cough. Diarrhea was associated with age below 4 years, while fever, cough, headache, odynophagia, ageusia, anosmia, myalgia, and dyspnea were associated with an age ranging from 10 to 19 years. In the study period, there were no deaths from COVID-19 of residents of the municipality in the age group from 0 to 19 years. Conclusions: The study was able to identify the proportion of involvement of COVID-19 in children and adolescents in the city, and the disease had a mild evolution. The main symptoms were fever and cough, but mainly diarrhea in younger children, and headache, odynophagia, anosmia, ageusia, and myalgia in adolescents.

Clinical and Epidemiological Assessment of Children and Adolescents Hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 in the Pre-Amazon Region

“…The pediatric age group with SARS-CoV-2 presents individuality in its clinical characteristics, which seems to evade the notorious severity of adult and elderly patients [ 14 , 15 ]. In children and adolescents, a milder pattern of COVID-19 is observed, with few reports of severity when compared the adult population [ 16 ]. We identified that all the studied range is susceptible to COVID-19, but it was most observed in adolescents (45/34.9%), followed by children from 1 year to 5 years (39/30.2%) and then newborns (26/20.2%).…”

Morbidity trend and space-time clusters of COVID-19 occurrence in children and adolescents

“…Some studies suggest that high transmissibility can result from diagnostic failures, possibly explained by the occurrence of mild symptoms or even the absence of symptoms in this age group, thus maintaining the spread of the disease. 24 , 25 …”

A Presença da Escola ao longo da Pandemia: Uma Revisão

“…Obviamente, no início da pandemia, ou no início de qualquer outra doença infecciosa, não há estudos completos, clínica e experimentalmente bem controlados, que forneçam evidências sólidas para responderem a esta complexa e importante questão. Todavia, em função da continuidade do surto pandêmico em vários países do globo, pesquisadores sistematicamente foram revelando evidências acerca da associação entre transmissão do vírus e de sua letalidade em crianças, e adultos, comparando ambientes escolásticos e não escolásticos (Santos et al, 2021).…”