Severe Coronavirus Disease-2019 in Children and Young Adults in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Region

Roberta L DeBiasi; Xiaoyan Song; Meghan Delaney; Michael Bell; Karen Smith; Jay Pershad; Emily Ansusinha; Andrea Hahn; Rana Hamdy; Nada Harik; Benjamin Hanisch; Barbara Jantausch; Adeline Koay; Robin Steinhorn; Kurt Newman; David Wessel

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.05.007

Severe Coronavirus Disease-2019 in Children and Young Adults in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Region

J Pediatr. 2020 Aug:223:199-203.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.05.007. Epub 2020 May 13.

Authors

Roberta L DeBiasi¹, Xiaoyan Song², Meghan Delaney³, Michael Bell⁴, Karen Smith⁵, Jay Pershad⁶, Emily Ansusinha⁷, Andrea Hahn⁸, Rana Hamdy⁸, Nada Harik⁸, Benjamin Hanisch⁸, Barbara Jantausch⁸, Adeline Koay⁸, Robin Steinhorn⁹, Kurt Newman¹⁰, David Wessel⁴

Affiliations

¹ Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC; Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC. Electronic address: rdebiasi@childrensnational.org.
² Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; Division of Infection Control and Epidemiology, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.
³ Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; Division of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; Division of Critical Care Medicine, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; Division of Hospitalist Medicine, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; Division of Emergency Medicine, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.
⁷ Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.
⁸ Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC; Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.
⁹ Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; Division of Neonatology, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.
¹⁰ Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; Chief Executive Officer, Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.

Abstract

Despite worldwide spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, few publications have reported the potential for severe disease in the pediatric population. We report 177 infected children and young adults, including 44 hospitalized and 9 critically ill patients, with a comparison of patient characteristics between infected hospitalized and nonhospitalized cohorts, as well as critically ill and noncritically ill cohorts. Children <1 year and adolescents and young adults >15 years of age were over-represented among hospitalized patients (P = .07). Adolescents and young adults were over-represented among the critically ill cohort (P = .02).

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; critical care; hospitalization; pediatric.

Publication types

Case Reports
Comparative Study
Observational Study

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Age Distribution
Asthma / epidemiology
Betacoronavirus*
COVID-19
Child
Child, Preschool
Cohort Studies
Comorbidity
Coronavirus Infections / diagnosis
Coronavirus Infections / epidemiology*
Cough / virology
Critical Illness
District of Columbia / epidemiology
Dyspnea / virology
Female
Fever / virology
Hospitalization*
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Male
Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome / complications
Pandemics
Pharyngitis / virology
Pneumonia, Viral / diagnosis
Pneumonia, Viral / epidemiology*
Respiration, Artificial / statistics & numerical data
Retrospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2
Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome / virology
Young Adult

Supplementary concepts

pediatric multisystem inflammatory disease, COVID-19 related