The novel coronavirus has been declared as a pandemic and a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. This virus has been labelled as a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as its phylogenetic features are similar to SARS-CoV. The virus has not only affected the adults but also many children and newborns. A literature review of studies has shown that children with COVID-19 can be completely asymptomatic or have mild to moderate symptoms that can result in not being diagnosed.

Therefore, it is important to clearly characterize the clinical manifestations of this infection to provide accurate information to neonatologists and pediatricians. Many researchers are conducting studies on this domain. One such study reviewed articles published on clinical manifestations and characteristics of children and infants with COVID-19 and showed that clinical manifestations in children may be mild (72%), moderate (22%) or severe (6%). According to this study, the most common symptoms were dry cough (91%) and fever (96%). Moreover, most of the children were infected with COVID-19 due to family cluster or history of close contact. The findings of another study found that viral-shedding occurs more than 4 weeks after the onset of the disease, suggesting the role of fecal-oral transmission of COVID-19 in children. Thus, fecal-oral transmission should be considered in children who have not yet received toilet training.

Furthermore, it has been reported that infected children have relatively milder clinical symptoms compared to infected adults. The investigators have stated that clinical symptoms and history of exposure to COVID-19 have higher diagnostic value in children, while chest CT scan is not able to accurately detect the severity of the disease in children. Although the clinical symptoms are relatively milder in children than adults, special attention should be paid to early diagnosis and treatment in infected children.

Source: Arch Acad Emerg Med. 2020;8(1):e50. Published 2020 Apr 18.