What is the risk of an infant under 3 months of age contracting severe COVID-19?

In a recent study published in virus, A team of Italian researchers investigated the severity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in infants younger than 3 months and compared the reported coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the pediatric population. 19) compared severity scores.

Background

Evidence suggests serious COVID-19 symptoms It is not as prevalent in the pediatric population as it is in the adult population worldwide. However, some studies have reported that infants and children with comorbidities are at increased risk of severe disease. A UK population cohort study showed that SARS-CoV-2 infection in the neonatal population leads to 42% of severe cases, with 33% requiring respiratory support.

In a contrasting study, infants with SARS-CoV-2 infection were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, and severe COVID-19 cases in the neonatal population were associated with premature birth and cardiac abnormalities. is shown.

Criteria for scoring the severity of COVID-19 also vary among studies, with some studies scoring the severity of epidemiological symptoms. In contrast, some people use the clinical symptoms of test results as evidence. Yet another study used clinical outcomes such as the need for a ventilator and the development of organ dysfunction as the basis for the severity score.

About research

In this study, we used data collected from a network of 62 pediatric hospitals across Italy to understand the consequences and epidemiological and clinical aspects of severe COVID-19 in infants under 90 days of age. A positive quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) test was used to confirm the presence of COVID-19. Anonymized data included information on vaccination history, previous medical conditions, laboratory reports, hospitalization records, diagnostic procedures, prescribed medications, and disease outcome.

Severity was scored based on various criteria used in previous studies. The severity score scale for assessing COVID-19 outcome ranged from 1 to 4.A score of 1 indicated a diagnosis of pneumonia oxygen saturation A score of 0 was assigned to mild COVID-19 cases that did not meet the criteria for a score of 1 to 4, who were either normal or mildly low and were hospitalized without requiring an intensive care unit.

result

The results are consistent with those of other studies, which report that the majority of infected infants under 3 months of age show mild or no symptoms. The typical symptoms consisted mainly of fever, runny nose, and cough. Infants were more likely than adults to have gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.

Severe symptoms such as dyspnea, lethargy, and anorexia are rarely reported. Of the neonatal cohort that participated in this study, 9 of his cases of early-onset COVID-19 (within the first week of life) and the remaining 50 were late-onset (2–4 weeks of age) .

The authors hypothesized that early-onset COVID-19 cases in neonates are most likely due to congenital or perinatal infection with SARS-CoV-2. At the same time, the delayed incidence was best explained by contact with maternal respiratory fluids, other infected family members, or medical staff. Additionally, this study identified families with COVID-19 in 58.5% of cases of late-onset neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection. The results also found that 2.8% of cases occurred in hospitals, highlighting the need for increased surveillance and use of personal protective equipment for COVID-19 in hospitals.

In contrast to previous studies, the current cohort study showed very low levels of leukocytosis and lymphopenia during complete blood counts. Still, the authors believe this may be due to the limited number of severe COVID-19 cases in their study. Inflammatory markers such as were abnormal only in a minority of patients. Some studies have reported elevations in creatine phosphokinase and liver enzymes, but this has not been observed in the current study.

Most cases were treated symptomatically with antipyretics and antibiotics. None of the patients required antivirals, and only one of her infants was prescribed hydroxychloroquine. Hospitalization was necessary mainly due to the young age of the patient.

According to the authors, the classification of severity varied according to the scoring criteria.It highlights the ambiguity of current definitions of COVID-19 severity and provides validated first time Severity scoring system.

Conclusion

Overall, this study supports the findings of other studies, reporting that severe COVID-19 symptoms are rare in infants younger than 3 months of age. Among patients, late-onset SARS-CoV-2 infections occurred more frequently than early-onset cases, mostly resulting from contact with infected family members and rarely with infected hospital personnel. I got

Various severity classification criteria used in the literature obscure the scoring of COVID-19 symptoms, necessitating a generalized and validated scale to grade the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection is shown.