Abstract
Background
An understanding of the clinical characteristics of children with coronavirus disease 2019 in diverse communities is needed to optimize the response of healthcare providers during this pandemic.
Methods
We performed a retrospective review of all children presenting to the Texas Children’s Hospital system with testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from March 10, 2020 through June 28, 2020.Demographics were recorded for all patients undergoing testing and clinical characteristics and outcomes were recorded for children with positive tests.
Results
Of 16,554 unique patients ≤ 21 years of age who were tested for SARS-CoV-2, 1215 (7.3%) patients tested positive. Infants under 1 year of age and patients aged 18-21 years had the highest percent of positive tests at 9.9% (230/2329) and 10.7% (79/739), respectively. Hispanic children accounted for 66% (802/1215) of positive tests, though they only represented 42.1% (6972/16554) of all children tested for SARS-CoV-2. Of the 1215 children with a positive test, 55.7% had fever, 40.9% had cough, 39.8% had congestion or rhinorrhea, 21.9% had gastrointestinal complaints, and 15.9% were asymptomatic. Only 97 (8%) patients were hospitalized (of which 68% were Hispanic). Most hospitalized patients had underlying medical conditions (62/97, 63.9%), including obesity. Thirty-one hospitalized patients (31/97, 32%) required respiratory support and nine patients (9/97, 9.3%) received SARS-CoV-2 antiviral therapy. Two patients died.
Conclusions
A relatively high percentage of Hispanic children tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and were hospitalized. Most children with detection of SARS-CoV-2 had uncomplicated illness courses, some children were critically ill, and two patients died.
Keywords: coronavirus disease 2019, SARS-CoV-2, Children