Abstract
Background: As of 23rd February 2020, China had 77,048 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, and only 2. 1% of patients were under the age of 19 years. Morbidity among children was much lower, with milder or absent signs and symptoms; chest CT scans showed milder symptoms, if at all, compared to adults.Objective: Report the epidemiological, clinical features, laboratory, radiological characteristics, and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Compare additional signs and symptoms, investigate familial clustering, compare laboratory results, and find out relevance between age and typical chest CT scans in patients.Methods: We studied 33 young patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Anhui Province of China by 16th February 2020. Their signs, symptoms, and familial clustering were analyzed. We compared the laboratory test results, age, and gender among three parts based on their chest CT scans.Results: Familial clustering was seen in 30 (30/33; 90.91%) patients; three families had seven confirmed members infected with the disease. Eight (8/33; 24.24%) patients had no symptoms, 12 (12/33; 36.36%) patients had only fever, nine (9/33; 27.27%) patients had fever and additional symptoms, and 12 (12/33; 36.36%) patients had no fever. Dry cough was the most common additional symptom. In 25 (25/33; 75.76%) patients, the percent of lymphocytes decreased; 26 (26/33; 78.79%) patients were older than 7 years. More male than female patients and patients older than 8 years showed typical abnormalities in the chest CT scans (P = 0.038). Only two 18 years old patients had hepatic injury.Conclusion: Children's infection is mild and familial clustering was the most common channel. The older patients had more typical ground glass opacity (GGO) or consolidation in chest CT scans. Cases without fever strongly suggested that non-symptomatic children should not be assumed to be free of infection when their family members have confirmed infection. Most children showed clinical features distinguishable from adults and with increased susceptibility within family members.
Highlights
Since December 2019, the epidemic of coronavirus−2019 (SARSCOV-2) has spread throughout the world, rapidly resulting in 4,330,982 confirmed cases and 295,671 deaths as of 6th May 2020
We present here a descriptive study on the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the COVID-19 infection
As of February 23, 77048 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections were reported in China
Summary
Since December 2019, the epidemic of coronavirus−2019 (SARSCOV-2) has spread throughout the world, rapidly resulting in 4,330,982 confirmed cases and 295,671 deaths as of 6th May 2020. Only 2.1% were under the age of 19 years Was their morbidity less than adults, their clinical features were milder. A few of them showed no signs and symptoms of the infection. Every child with a confirmed SARS-COV-2 infection is being diagnosed as having novel coronavirus pneumonia (“NCP”), even though some of them had no fever, cough, fatigue, or typical radiological characteristics in a chest CT. As of 23rd February 2020, China had 77,048 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, and only 2. 1% of patients were under the age of 19 years. Morbidity among children was much lower, with milder or absent signs and symptoms; chest CT scans showed milder symptoms, if at all, compared to adults
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