Abstract Objective To study the clinical features of children with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 13 children with SARS-CoV-2 infection who hospitalized in a Changsha hospital. Results All 13 children had the disease onset due to family aggregation. Of the 13 children, 2 had no symptoms, and the other 11 children had the clinical manifestations of fever, cough, pharyngeal discomfort, abdominal pain, diarrhea, convulsions, or vomiting. As for clinical typing, 7 had mild type, 5 had common type, and 1 had severe type. The median duration of fever was 2 days in 6 children. All 13 children had normal levels of peripheral blood lymphocyte counts, immunoglobulins, CD4, CD8, and interleukin-6. The median time to clearance of SARS-CoV-2 was 13 days in the nasopharyngeal swabs of the 13 children. Three children presented false negatives for RT-PCR of SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 RNA remained detectable in stools for 12 days after the nasopharyngeal swab test yielded a negative result. Abnormal CT findings were observed in 6 children. All 13 children were cured and discharged and they were normal at 2 weeks after discharge. Conclusions Intra-family contact is the main transmission route of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children, and there is also a possibility of fecal-oral transmission. Mild and common types are the major clinical types in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and cytokine storm is not observed. Children with SARS-CoV-2 infection tend to have a good short-term prognosis, and follow-up is needed to observe their long-term prognosis. Multiple nucleic acid tests should be performed for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and their close contacts by multiple site sampling.
TAN Xin,HUANG Juan,ZHAO Fen et al. Clinical features of children with SARS-CoV-2 infection: an analysis of 13 cases from Changsha, China[J]. CJCP, 2020, 22(4): 294-298.
TAN Xin,HUANG Juan,ZHAO Fen et al. Clinical features of children with SARS-CoV-2 infection: an analysis of 13 cases from Changsha, China[J]. CJCP, 2020, 22(4): 294-298.
Gorbalenya AE, Baker SC, Baric RS, et al. Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus:the species and its viruses-a statement of the Coronavirus Study Group[J/OL].Biorxiv. (2020-02-11)[2020-03-22]. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.07.937862v1.
[2]
Chan JF, Kok KH, Zhu Z, et al. Genomic characterization of the 2019 novel human-pathogenic coronavirus isolated from a patient with atypical pneumonia after visiting Wuhan[J]. Emerg Microbes Infect, 2020, 9(1):221-236.
Sun K, Chen J, Viboud C. Early epidemiological analysis of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak based on crowdsourced data:a population-level observational study[J/OL]. Lancet Digit Health. (2020-02-20)[2020-03-22].
[7]
Chan JF, Yuan S, Kok KH, et al. A familial cluster of pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus indicating personto-person transmission:a study of a family cluster[J]. Lancet, 2020, 395(10223):514-523.
Huang C, Wang Y, Li X, et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan China[J]. Lancet, 2020, 395(10223):497-506.
[10]
Xu Z, Shi L, Wang Y, et al. Pathological findings of COVID-19 associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome[J/OL]. Lancet Respir Med. (2020-02-17)[2020-03-30]. https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2213-2600%2820%2930076-X.
Channappanavar R, Perlman S. Pathogenic human coronavirus infections:causes and consequences of cytokine storm and immunopathology[J]. Semin Immunopathol, 2017, 39(5):529-539.
