Epidemiological and clinical and laboratory features of COVID-19 in pediatric patients

Abstract

The article presents up-to-date data on the main pathogenetic mechanisms and features of the new coronavirus infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The review highlights the main epidemiological features of infection with SARS-CoV-2 in children at various age periods, features of the immune response and variants of the course of the disease with lung damage, as well as other organs and systems. The clinical and laboratory features of the course of a new coronavirus infection in children are highlighted. It was found that children are less likely to develop severe COVID-19 than adults. More than 95% of all cases of the disease range from asymptomatic course to clinical manifestations of mild and moderate severity. About 2% of childrens patients need hospitalization, including in the intensive care unit and ventilator. However, extrapulmonary manifestations are registered in children more often than in adults, especially from the gastrointestinal tract and circulatory organs. According to numerous authors, the features of the clinical and laboratory course of COVID-19 in pediatric patients are probably associated with a number of factors, among which age-related features of the immune response, the functioning of angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) used by coronaviruses as a cellular receptor are indicated. Understanding the role of the child population in the dynamics of transmission of infection is important, since children significantly affect the rate of infection spread.