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A Spanish study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) carried out in 30 hospitals in the community of Madrid shows that children also suffer from the disease, "although with much milder cases than the adult, " says one of the authors. EL MUNDO, Cristina Calvo, also a spokesperson for the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP).

Among the details that appear in the work is that infections in minors occur early in the Covid-19 epidemics , since once the distancing measures are implemented and the general alarm state are not common. The also pediatrician at the University Hospital La Paz (Madrid) explains that "right now that there is community transmission, children are infected in homes, as well as the whole family . " At the time when minors can regain normal life, they may be one of the obstacles to limiting the increasing number of infections because "they may be vectors -source of new circulation of the virus- since they develop few symptoms. They are positive and do not we find out . "

It has been observed in the studied region that 60% of confirmed infections in children required hospital admission , as the work shows. The usual criteria for admission "in our region due to respiratory problems coincide with the definition of serious illness in China," the authors explain. Thus, only 21 of 731 children with confirmed COVID-19 (2.8%) in China had severe disease (hypoxia and oxygen saturation less than 92%) or critical illness.

The data collected from Madrid , one of the regions with the most cases in Spain, is maintained according to previously published articles, which suggests that only 2% of affected people are younger than 19 years of age . Calvo says that the pattern of Covid-19 in children here "is similar to the epidemic in China. The little ones have milder infections and are diagnosed less precisely because of this, they are pictures that are not detected. But they are also infected ." The minors were diagnosed using PCR, which is "the standard test for almost all viral infections," they point out in the work.

more cases observed than in China

The key issue regarding the high percentage of confirmed cases is the number of children examined . Initially, only minors who had contact with a person with Covid-19 were studied, but due to the "explosion of cases" that Madrid experienced at the end of February, "criteria were changed," they underline in the investigation.

Of the 41 children with confirmed COVID-19, 25 had to be hospitalized; four of those 41 (9.7%) were admitted to pediatric intensive care units, and four (9.7%) required respiratory support beyond nasal oxygen glasses. All of them have already been registered.

As of March 16, of the 4695 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Community of Madrid, 0.8% (41 cases) were minors . During the first week, 6 of 103 pediatric patients (5.8%) tested positive and at the end of the second week the total was 41 out of 365 (11.2%).

In the group of studied cases, the serious ones are very infrequent fortunately, "although there are", emphasizes Calvo. The group most at risk "are infants under 1 year of age and in them the severe picture resembles bronchiolitis due to respiratory syncytial virus or other winter viruses, with respiratory distress and usually fever. In older children they are more similar pneumonias to those of the adult , but in general less serious ", points the pediatrician of the Hospital of La Paz.

In addition, despite the epidemic, Calvo recalls that "children with chronic diseases should consult if they have symptoms such as fever and cough, because they are more vulnerable and may need treatment or admission . I would emphasize that we are seeing and this has nothing to do with the article that people are afraid to come to the hospitals and sometimes they bring the children later than they should and we see appendicitis with perforation, for example, because they do not come. If the child is ill, we should not stop going " .

On the other hand, the main author of the study, Alfredo Tagarro, from the Pediatric Service of the Infanta Sofía Hospital in San Sebatián de los Reyes (Madrid) adds that the group has opened a registry of COVID-19 in children to which they have joined more than 40 hospitals throughout Spain . "We will continue to extract data and count what this disease is like in children and give the most solid data possible," he points out.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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