Abstract Objective To study the clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children aged < 18 years. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed from the medical data of 23 children, aged from 3 months to 17 years and 8 months, who were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Jiangxi, China from January 21 to February 29, 2020. Results Of the 23 children with COVID-19, 17 had family aggregation. Three children (13%) had asymptomatic infection, 6 (26%) had mild type, and 14 (61%) had common type. Among these 23 children, 16 (70%) had fever, 11 (48%) had cough, 8 (35%) had fever and cough, and 8 (35%) had wet rales in the lungs. The period from disease onset or the first nucleic acid-positive detection of SARS-CoV-2 to the virus nucleic acid negative conversion was 6-24 days (median 12 days). Of the 23 children, 3 had a reduction in total leukocyte count, 2 had a reduction in lymphocytes, 2 had an increase in C-reactive protein, and 2 had an increase in D-dimer. Abnormal pulmonary CT findings were observed in 12 children, among whom 9 had patchy ground-glass opacities in both lungs. All 23 children received antiviral therapy and were recovered. Conclusions COVID-19 in children aged < 18 years often occurs with family aggregation, with no specific clinical manifestation and laboratory examination results. Most of these children have mild symptoms and a good prognosis. Epidemiological history is of particular importance in the diagnosis of COVID-19 in children aged < 18 years.
WU Hua-Ping,LI Bing-Fei,CHEN Xiao et al. Clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 in children aged <18 years in Jiangxi, China: an analysis of 23 cases[J]. CJCP, 2020, 22(5): 419-424.
WU Hua-Ping,LI Bing-Fei,CHEN Xiao et al. Clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 in children aged <18 years in Jiangxi, China: an analysis of 23 cases[J]. CJCP, 2020, 22(5): 419-424.
World Health Organization. WHO Director-General's remarks at the media briefing on 2019-nCoV on 11 February 2020[EB/OL]. (2020-02-11)[2020-03-17]. https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-2019-ncov-on-11-february-2020.
[2]
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[EB/OL]. (2020-02-07)[2020-03-22]. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.07.937862v1.full.pdf.
Shen KL, Yang YH, Wang TY, et al. Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in children:experts' consensus statement[J]. World J Pediatr, 2020. DOI:10.1007/s12519-020-00343-7. Epub ahead of print.
Cai J, Xu J, Lin D, et al. A case series of children with 2019 novel coronavirus infection:clinical and epidemiological features[J]. Clin Infect Dis, 2020. DOI:10.1093/cid/ciaa198. Epub ahead of print.
[9]
Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, et al. Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia[J]. N Engl J Med, 2020, 382(13):1199-1207.
