COVID-19 in South American Children: A Call For Action

Prevalence, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of pediatric COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The high prevalence of this disease in adult and elderly populations has indeed played a major role in formulating our understanding of this disease [ 33 ]. Further, lack of available data and sporadic literature reports from major worldwide epicenters regarding pediatric COVID-19 cases continues to contribute to unclear characterization of this disease in children [ [34] , [35] , [36] ]. More reporting of pediatric data in combination with high powered and multi-national studies are needed, in this regard, to improve our knowledge of COVID-19 in children.…”

COVID-19 and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Latin American children: a multinational study

“…Independent Pediatricians, Pediatric Infectious Diseases specialists and Emergency Physicians from Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica and Brazil developed a “CoviD in sOuth aMerIcaN children – study GrOup (CoviDOMINGO)” (9) and collected cases of confirmed pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infections evaluated before or during the study period. All patients ≤ 18 years old with positive RT-PCR on at least one clinical sample (nasopharyngeal swab, bronchoalveolar lavage, blood, stool, or cerebrospinal fluid), or fulfilling the criteria for MIS-C (PIMS-TS) with microbiological documentation of SARS-CoV-2 exposure (PCR or IgG), according to the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) were included in the study.…”

“…However, although South America is currently severely involved by the COVID-19 pandemic, multinational studies from this area, similarly to those described in Europe and US, are missing, with the exception of two PICU studies from Chile (7) and Brasil (8), traditionally the two Latin American countries more involved in research projects. In order to provide fast and up-to-date key data on COVID-19 in children in Latin America, one of the largest and more populated areas in the world, inspired by a previous European study, we used a newly established research network (9), predominantly comprising paediatric infectious diseases specialists. Moreover, Latin America is characterized by a specific geo-political and ethnic situation and, considering the potential impact of political approaches on the pandemic, data from this area are necessary to appropriately plan and allocate resources to face the local (and indirectly the international) situation of COVID-19 pandemic, and to better understand the real impact of COVID-19 on children.…”

Socio-economic inequalities and COVID-19 incidence and mortality in Brazilian children: a nationwide register-based study

“…In a recent study, discussion was on the urgent need to understand comprehensive pediatric data from South America to implement proper preventive and treatment protocol in the region. 4 As part of South America, Brazil has seen a devastating spread of COVID-19 across the country. As of September 2020, Brazil had registered more than 4.1 million cases and 126,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the general population.…”