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Review
. 2020 Dec;55(12):3252-3267.
doi: 10.1002/ppul.25087. Epub 2020 Oct 7.

Coronavirus global pandemic: An overview of current findings among pediatric patients

Evanthia Perikleous  1 , Aggelos Tsalkidis  1   2 , Andrew Bush  3 , Emmanouil Paraskakis  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Coronavirus global pandemic: An overview of current findings among pediatric patients

Evanthia Perikleous et al. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic has been emerged as a cardinal public health problem. Children have their own specific clinical features; notably, they seem to be escaping the severe respiratory adverse effects. The international scientific community is rapidly carrying out studies, driving to the need to reassess knowledge of the disease and therapeutic strategies.

Aim: To assess the characteristics of COVID-19 infected children worldwide of all ages, from neonates to children and adolescents, and how they differ from their adult counterparts.

Search strategy: An electronic search in PubMed was conducted, using combinations of the following keywords: coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, children. The search included all types of articles written in English between January 1, 2019 until August 15, 2020.

Results: The search identified 266 relevant articles. Children were mainly within family clusters of cases and have relatively milder clinical presentation compared with adults; children were reported to have better outcomes with a significantly lower mortality rate. Cough and fever were the most common symptoms while pneumonia was the cardinal respiratory manifestation of infected children. Laboratory results and thoracic imaging give varying results.

Conclusions: Children were mainly family cluster cases and usually presented with a mild infection, although cases presented with the multisystem inflammatory syndrome are becoming more apparent. Studies determining why the manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection are so variable may help to gain a better understanding of the disease and accelerate the development of vaccines and therapies.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; children; coronavirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of the search strategy. COVID‐19, 2019 novel coronavirus disease; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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