Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Child Health Advocacy Institute, China Hospital Development Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Pediatrics. 2020 Jun;145(6). doi: 10.1542/peds.2020-0702. Epub 2020 Mar 16.
To identify the epidemiological characteristics and transmission patterns of pediatric patients with the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China.
Nationwide case series of 2135 pediatric patients with COVID-19 reported to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention from January 16, 2020, to February 8, 2020, were included. The epidemic curves were constructed by key dates of disease onset and case diagnosis. Onset-to-diagnosis curves were constructed by fitting a log-normal distribution to data on both onset and diagnosis dates.
There were 728 (34.1%) laboratory-confirmed cases and 1407 (65.9%) suspected cases. The median age of all patients was 7 years (interquartile range: 2-13 years), and 1208 case patients (56.6%) were boys. More than 90% of all patients had asymptomatic, mild, or moderate cases. The median time from illness onset to diagnoses was 2 days (range: 0-42 days). There was a rapid increase of disease at the early stage of the epidemic, and then there was a gradual and steady decrease. The disease rapidly spread from Hubei province to surrounding provinces over time. More children were infected in Hubei province than any other province.
Children of all ages appeared susceptible to COVID-19, and there was no significant sex difference. Although clinical manifestations of children's COVID-19 cases were generally less severe than those of adult patients, young children, particularly infants, were vulnerable to infection. The distribution of children's COVID-19 cases varied with time and space, and most of the cases were concentrated in Hubei province and surrounding areas. Furthermore, this study provides strong evidence of human-to-human transmission.
分析中国儿童 2019 年新型冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的流行病学特征和传播模式。
纳入中国疾病预防控制中心 2020 年 1 月 16 日至 2 月 8 日报告的 2135 例儿童 COVID-19 全国病例系列。通过发病日期和病例诊断日期的关键日期构建流行曲线。通过拟合对数正态分布来构建发病至诊断的曲线。
实验室确诊病例 728 例（34.1%），疑似病例 1407 例（65.9%）。所有患者的中位年龄为 7 岁（四分位距：2-13 岁），1208 例患者（56.6%）为男性。所有患者中超过 90%为无症状、轻症或普通型。从发病到诊断的中位时间为 2 天（范围：0-42 天）。在疫情早期，疾病呈快速上升趋势，然后逐渐平稳下降。随着时间的推移，疾病从湖北省迅速蔓延到周边省份。湖北省感染的儿童比其他任何省份都多。
各年龄段儿童均易感染 COVID-19，且无明显性别差异。儿童 COVID-19 病例的临床表现一般较成人患者轻，但婴幼儿易感染。儿童 COVID-19 病例的分布随时间和空间而变化，大部分病例集中在湖北省及周边地区。此外，本研究提供了人际传播的有力证据。
