Clinical characteristics of acute respiratory syndrome with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in children in South China

Zheng, Guilang; Wang, Bangqin; Zhang, Hua; Xie, Chuxing; Zhang, Yuehua; Wen, Zhihong; Guo, Qingyun; Zhu, Hong; Ye, Guojing; Liang, Jiayi; Meng, Qiong; Xie, Jingquan; Jiang, Suhua; Liu, Guojun; Gao, Wenjun; Wang, Yanhao; Guo, Yuxiong

BACKGROUND: A retrospective study was conducted to summarize the clinical information of childhood infections during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) epidemic. METHODS: Children with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in 11 hospitals from three provinces of South China were included in the study. Clinical information was collected and compared with children and adults infected by SARS‐CoV‐2 in Wuhan. RESULTS: In total, 52 children were enrolled, including 28 boys. The median age was 9 years (interquartile range [IQR], 4‐12); 44.2% cases were of clustered occurrences, 40.4% patients had fever, 48.1% had cough, and 46.2% had a high lymphocyte count. No abnormalities were found in the liver and kidney function. Also, 82.7% of patients received antiviral therapy, but such therapy did not shorten the time to virus negativity or hospital stay (P = .082). The time to virus negativity was 12.0 days (IQR, 8.0‐16.8) and hospital stay was 14.5 days (IQR, 10.3‐17.9). Compared with reports in Wuhan, there were more acute upper respiratory tract infection (AURTI) and fewer pneumonia cases (P = .000). Compared with the non‐ICU adult COVID‐19 in Wuhan, these children's diseases were relatively mild, with fewer complications. CONCLUSIONS: Children with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection had a mild fever, lymphocyte elevation was more common than reduction, and antiviral treatment had no obvious effect. The overall clinical manifestations were mild, and the prognosis was good.