COVID-19 and children

Abstract

In December 2019, the world became aware of an epidemic of a very severe infection caused by a new coronavirus. Later, WHO declared a pandemic. The pediatricians were ready for the worst. The novel infection was expected to promptly spread among the most vulnerable population, children. But the clinicians soon understood that the situation is unbelievable: adults develop severe disease and die, while the children remain almost excluded from the infection spreading. 9 months have passed in the “new reality”. The humankind was learning to respond to the new infection challenge by empirical search for the potential therapeutic and diagnostic solutions and conducting wide clinical studies in parallel. A few questions have been answered because of consolidated and/or isolated actions of researchers and clinicians at the national, regional, and international levels. However, most aspects of how the new coronavirus affects the humans, including children, is still unclear and our knowledge of these aspects cannot be transferred in the routine practice. This review presents latest understanding of the course of the novel coronavirus infection in children, its treatment and outcomes.

Principles of Rational COVID-19 Therapy in Pediatrics

“…For example, children rarely have such clinical symptoms as rhinorrhea, wheezing, and general malaise. However, diarrhea in pediatric patients with COVID-19 infection is more common than in adults [24][25][26].…”

“…Against the background of the absence of other symptoms of the disease in children in Spain and the USA, cases of soreness of the fingers or individual phalanges with signs of cutaneous vasculitis, superficially similar to frostbite, have been described. In May 2020, new publications appeared on the presence of this sign in Italy and Spain, and systematic data in the USA allow this symptom to be recommended as pathognomonic for the diagnosis of COVID-19 in children, even in laboratory-unconfirmed cases [24,27,28].…”

Self-Assessment of Health Status and Willingness to Be Vaccinated in Adolescents from the Niigata Prefecture and the Khabarovsk Region during COVID-19

“…Consequently, less attention is being paid to pediatric patients due to the milder course of the virus. Previous research has confirmed that the risk of developing severe and critical conditions in children is much lower than that in adults [ 8 ]. However, there is a concern that the number of tests will be reduced; consequently, the number of infected children and adolescents will be lower than the actual number.…”