Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of 91children confirmed with COVID-19/ 91例儿童新型冠状病毒肺炎确诊病例临床及流行病学特征

To investigate the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of children with confirmed Corona virus disease (COVID-19) so as to provide scientific bases for development of strategies for prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic in children METHODS By means of retrospective single-center study, the clinical data and epidemiological data of 91 confirmed cases of COVID-19 who were treated in Wuhan Children's Hospital from Jan 25, 2020 to Feb 18, 2020 were summarized and analyzed RESULTS Of the 91 children who were confirmed with COVID-19, 56 (61 54%) were male, 35 (38 46%) were female, the median age was 4 years old,16 (17 58%) had other diseases or were infected with other pathogens;72 (79 12%) had the history of contact with their family members who were suspected for COVID 19 or the confirmed cases As for the clinical classifications, 53 (58 24%) were mild, 7 (7 69%) of whom were asymptomatic, 31 (34 07%) were ordinary, 6 (6 59%) were severe, and 1 (1 10%) was critically severe The fever (56 cases, 61 54%), cough (51 cases, 56 04%) and fatigue (14 cases, 15 38%) were the predominant clinical manifestations, while the gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea were less common The chest CT imaging examination showed that 11 (12 09%) had patchy or ground glass shadow, 12 (13 19%) had unilateral pneumonia, and 11 (12 09 %) had bilateral pneumonia 33 (36 26%) cases had abnormal lactate dehydrogenase, 32 (35 16%) cases had abnormal C-reactive protein, and 54 (59 34%) cases had abnormal procalcitonin 73 (80 22%) cases were tested negative for twice in a row (interval of 1 day) since the initial positive test for nucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2, with a median of 7 days CONCLUSION The male cases are dominant among the confirmed cases It is prevalent among the children aged between 1 and 12 years old The fever and cough are the major clinical symptoms, and the majority are mild cases Most of the children have the history of close contact with the patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, and the majority are infected due to household clustering