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. 2023 Aug 7;27(1):33-41.
doi: 10.34763/jmotherandchild.20232701.d-23-00012. eCollection 2023 Jun 1.

Epidemiological, Clinical, and Laboratory Features of Children with SARS-CoV-2 in Ukraine

Tetiana Harashchenko  1 , Tetiana Umanets  1 , Volodymyr Podolskiy  1 , Tetiana Kaminska  2 , Yuriy Marushko  3 , Vasily Podolskiy  1 , Volodymyr Lapshyn  1 , Yurii Antypkin  1
Affiliations

Epidemiological, Clinical, and Laboratory Features of Children with SARS-CoV-2 in Ukraine

Tetiana Harashchenko et al. J Mother Child. .

Abstract

Introduction: In December 2019, the Chinese city of Wuhan reported the first cases of pneumonia from a new type of beta coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2. In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, paediatric patients were thought to be immune to the new virus; however, further studies have shown people of all ages to be susceptible to the virus.

Objective: Identify and describe the clinical and epidemiological features of COVID-19 among hospitalized children in Ukraine.

Materials and methods: Retrospective study of 171 children aged 2 months to 18 years who were hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2.

Results: Most patients in the study had a moderate progression of the disease (77.78%, or n=133), whereas a severe course was noted in 22.22% (n=38). Across age groups, children aged 6-12 was the predominant age group affected (35.67%, or n=61). The most common symptoms were fever in 88.2% of patients, sore throat in 69.2% and cough in 60.9%. Symptoms associated with dyspnoea and cyanosis were significantly more common in children with the severe course (p<0.05). Almost half of children had at least one comorbidity, the most prevalent being chronic tonsillitis (11.8% of patients) and anemia (6.5% of patients). A positive correlation (r=0.7 p<0.05) was found between CRP levels and COVID-19 severity. X-ray changes in the lungs were present in 76.61% of examined children and ground-glass opacity symptom was registered in 50.88%.

Conclusions: COVID-19 among hospitalized children in Ukraine usually has a moderate course of illness and a good prognosis.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; child; clinical features; infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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