Fudan Children’s Hospital published a case series of children infected with COVID-19.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many clinical studies have been published to help treat the patients in general, but only a small fraction of these studies focus on pediatric cases. Due to the high risk of intra-family transmission, children, though a minority among COVID-19 patients, should not be overlooked. Recently, a group of researchers from the Children’s Hospital affiliated to Fudan University has collaborated with children’s hospitals in other cities to bring their expertise and experience in pediatrics into full play.
The Children’s Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, as the only designated hospital for children’s infectious diseases in Shanghai, has been entrusted with all confirmed pediatric cases of COVID-19 across Shanghai.
By looking into 10 cases of children infection admitted between Jan. 19 and Feb. 3 into hospitals in Shanghai, Hainan, Hefei (in Anhui province) and Qingdao (in Shandong province), the researchers identified the clinical profiles of COVID-19 infection in children and published their findings in a paper titled “A Case Series of children with 2019 novel coronavirus infection: clinical and epidemiological features” on Clinical Infectious Diseases on Feb. 28.
The paper reveals that children with COVID-19 usually show mild respiratory infections, as compared with adult cases. However, virus control in child patients is more difficult. According to the study, children have a longer incubation period for COVID-19 than adults. In addition, virus shedding in both respiratory tracts and feces is found in these children even when they are getting better, which means anyone that has close contact with these children are still at the peril of infection. This poses a great challenge for infection control.
The research also points out that since there has been no evidence proving the effectiveness of the currently available antiviral agents, the use of them or of antibiotic initiation for the treatment of self-limited non-severe COVID is not recommendable.
Besides prudent use of antiviral drugs, the medics have to be more creative and caring with these young patients, the researchers adviced.
Zeng Mei, chief physician at the Department of Infectious Diseases of Children’s Hospital, said the medics here must come up a way to make children compliant to treatment. Many kids are reluctant to take drugs, the drugs chosen for children thus should have mild taste and smell, and of course, with no or mild side-effects. At the isolation wards, younger children were looked after 24 hours a day and older ones were given psychological counseling, said Xia Aimei, head nurse of Department of Infectious Diseases.
By sharing its clinical observations on COVID-19 pediatric cases during the first wave of COVID-19 in China, the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University has provided valuable advice to the diagnosis and treatment of children to the rest of the world.
Editor: Deng Jianguo, Li Yijie
