Department of Public Health, Indian Institute of Public Health at Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar 382042, Gujarat, India.
J Public Health (Oxf). 2021 Jun 7;43(2):243-245. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdaa269.
Role of pediatric cases in secondary transmission of COVID-19 is not well understood. We aim to study secondary attack rate (SAR) of COVID-19 in household contacts of pediatric index cases from Gujarat, Western Indian state.
For this cross-sectional study, details of 2412 paediatric patients were collected from Government records. Through stratified random sampling 10% (n = 242) of the patients were selected for the study and were telephonically contacted for obtaining the details of household secondary infection; 72 pediatric index cases having 287 household contacts were included in the study.
The SAR in household contacts of pediatric index cases was 1.7% (95% CI: 0.74-4%). Majority of the index cases were males (94.4%) with 66% of the patients being admitted at various hospitals and isolation facilities (45%); 37% were home quarantine. Of 72, 50 (74%) cases were aged between 12 and 18 years. The family size of the index cases causing secondary infection was comparatively larger than index cases without secondary household infection (6.75 ± 2.3 versus 4.9 ± 1.9; P = 0.034).
The household SAR from pediatric patients is low and is closely associated with the family size of the index cases. Hence, home quarantine should be advocated in smaller families with appropriate isolation facilities.
儿童病例在 COVID-19 二次传播中的作用尚不清楚。我们旨在研究印度西部古吉拉特邦儿科病例家庭接触者中 COVID-19 的二次感染率（SAR）。
在这项横断面研究中，从政府记录中收集了 2412 名儿科患者的详细信息。通过分层随机抽样，选择了 10%（n=242）的患者进行研究，并通过电话联系获得家庭二次感染的详细信息；共有 72 名儿科索引病例，有 287 名家庭接触者纳入研究。
儿科索引病例家庭接触者的 SAR 为 1.7%（95%CI：0.74-4%）。大多数索引病例为男性（94.4%），其中 66%的患者在不同的医院和隔离设施（45%）住院，37%在家隔离。72 例中，50 例（74%）年龄在 12 至 18 岁之间。导致二次家庭感染的索引病例的家庭规模比没有二次家庭感染的索引病例更大（6.75±2.3 与 4.9±1.9；P=0.034）。
儿童患者的家庭 SAR 较低，与索引病例的家庭规模密切相关。因此，应在家庭规模较小且有适当隔离设施的情况下提倡家庭隔离。
