Epidemiological, Clinical, and Laboratory Features of Children with SARS-CoV-2 in Ukraine
, , , , , , und | 07. Aug. 2023
Article Category: Original Research
Online veröffentlicht: 07. Aug. 2023
Seitenbereich: 33 - 41
Eingereicht: 24. Jan. 2023
Akzeptiert: 09. Feb. 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34763/jmotherandchild.20232701.d-23-00012
Schlüsselwörter
© 2023 Tetiana Harashchenko et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Introduction
In December 2019, the Chinese city of Wuhan reported the first cases of pneumonia from a new type of beta coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2. In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, paediatric patients were thought to be immune to the new virus; however, further studies have shown people of all ages to be susceptible to the virus.
Objective
Identify and describe the clinical and epidemiological features of COVID-19 among hospitalized children in Ukraine.
Materials and Methods
Retrospective study of 171 children aged 2 months to 18 years who were hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2.
Results
Most patients in the study had a moderate progression of the disease (77.78%, or n=133), whereas a severe course was noted in 22.22% (n=38). Across age groups, children aged 6–12 was the predominant age group affected (35.67%, or n=61). The most common symptoms were fever in 88.2% of patients, sore throat in 69.2% and cough in 60.9%. Symptoms associated with dyspnoea and cyanosis were significantly more common in children with the severe course (p<0.05). Almost half of children had at least one comorbidity, the most prevalent being chronic tonsillitis (11.8% of patients) and anemia (6.5% of patients). A positive correlation (r=0.7 p<0.05) was found between CRP levels and COVID-19 severity. X-ray changes in the lungs were present in 76.61% of examined children and ground-glass opacity symptom was registered in 50.88%.
Conclusions
COVID-19 among hospitalized children in Ukraine usually has a moderate course of illness and a good prognosis.