Childhood Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Taiwan and How to Differentiate It From Childhood Influenza Infection

Abstract

Childhood SARS is usually not fatal. The absence of rhinorrhea and presence of monocytopenia in SARS may distinguish it from influenza.

What’s New With the Old Coronaviruses?

“…However, certain features may provide a clue. A comparison of 15 pediatric patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV and 15 age-and sexmatched patients with culture-confirmed influenza in Taiwan revealed that rates of fever, cough, and constitutional symptoms such as chills and myalgia were similar between the 2 groups, but patients with SARS-CoV had significantly less rhinorrhea, sputum production, and sore throat than those with influenza [88]. In general, respiratory and constitutional symptoms are similar in the beginning of the illness in children and adults.…”

Pandemic FluClinical management of patients with an influenza-like illness during an influenza pandemic

“…In influenza A thrombocytopenia (<100) is found in 5 7% 71,84 . Thrombocytopenia was found in four out of seven cases of H5N1 infection in Vietnamese children 125 .…”

“…No child had lobar pneumonia reported 70 . Evidence from recent outbreaks of avian influenza (H5N1) in Hong Kong and Vietnam suggests that while some children had mild disease 71 , others appeared to have multi-organ disease including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) 57 . All children who developed progressive pneumonia with ARDS died.…”

“…(WBC < 4 in 8 27% 62,71 , WBC < 5 in 24% 84 ) with a lymphopenia (<1.5 in 41% 124 ; <1.0 in 40% 71 ). In contrast, a raised WBC (>15) is found in only 8 12% of cases 62,71 .…”

Risk-Stratified Seroprevalence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Among Children in Hong Kong

“…Similar findings were also observed from a study in Taiwan, where only 7.2% of SARS patients were Յ20 years of age. 4 Reviews on clinical features, investigations, and prognostic indicators on pediatric SARS in Hong Kong have been published 3,5-7 ; however, there are a lack of data on possible asymptomatic infection in children at the community level. Because clinical SARS in children was mild, the important question of whether there were more subclinical infections in this age group remains unanswered.…”