Fever, respiratory symptoms and gastrointestinal manifestations are most common among children with COVID-19

Objectives:
Knowledge about COVID-19 in children is limited due to the paucity of reported data. The pediatric age group comprises only less than 5% of total COVID-19 worldwide. Therefore, large studies in this population are unlikely in the immediate future. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.

What are the clinical features and outcome of COVID-19 infection in children aged less than 19 years?

Study design:
This review article included 27 studies with a total of 4,857 patients.

Results and conclusions:   
The investigators found about half of the patients had each of fever and cough, 11% [6-17%] had fast breathing and 6-13% had gastrointestinal manifestations.

The investigators found most of the patients had mild to moderate disease and only 4% had a severe or critical illness.

The investigators found leukopenia was the commonest reported laboratory abnormality among children aged less than 19 years.

The investigators concluded even among the symptomatic COVID-19 cases, severe manifestations are seen in very few children. Though fever and respiratory symptoms are most common, many children also have gastrointestinal manifestations.

Original title:
Clinical Features and Outcome of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis by Meena J, Yadav J, [...], Kumar J.

Link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32583808/

Additional information of El Mondo:
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