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Case Reports
. 2020 May 28;35(Suppl 2):53.
doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2020.35.2.23597. eCollection 2020.

COVID-19 in children: a case series from Nigeria

Olayinka Rasheed Ibrahim  1 , Bello Mohammed Suleiman  1 , Abdallah Sanda  2 , Taofeek Oloyede  3 , Surajudeen Oyeleke Bello  4 , Umar Ibrahim Bello  5 , Shamsudeen Yahaya  5 , Adamu Dawud  6 , Sulaiman Saidu Bashir  7
Affiliations
Case Reports

COVID-19 in children: a case series from Nigeria

Olayinka Rasheed Ibrahim et al. Pan Afr Med J. .

Abstract

Introduction: The global spread of COVID-19 remains unabated in the past few months with a rise in the number of available literature on the novel virus. There are very few paediatric studies and are mainly from developed countries with a paucity of information on the clinical manifestation of COVID-19 disease in African children, including Nigeria.

Methods: We described the clinical presentation, laboratory findings, treatment and outcome in a group of five Nigerian children managed at a COVID-19 isolation and treatment centre in Nigeria.

Results: We managed a total of five children with an age range of 3 months to 8 years in the last four weeks (16th April to 15th May 2020). Three of the five children were males. All the children had close contact with family members that tested positive for COVID-19. Out of the five children, one had moderate disease, three had mild symptomatic disease, and one was asymptomatic. Two out of the five children had lymphocytosis. Out of the four children who had chest radiograph, two had features of pneumonia.

Conclusion: COVID-19 is not uncommon in Nigerian children, and all had a confirmed family member with COVID-19. Besides, contrary to leucopaenia with lymphopaenia observed in the adult's population, we found lymphocytosis in this cohort and about 50.0% had pneumonic changes on chest radiograph.

Keywords: COVID-19; Nigerian children; clinical features; laboratory findings.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patient one chest radiograph showing bilateral patchy opacities seen in both lung fields
Figure 2
Figure 2
Patient two chest radiograph showing reticular opacities in the paracardiac and paratracheal regions with sparing of the lateral lung fields
Figure 3
Figure 3
Patient 3 chest radiography showing normal study
Figure 4
Figure 4
Patient 5 chest radiograph showing normal study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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