Gulati Ram, Katakam Bhumesh K, Ranugha P S S, Gupta Mrinal, Rao T Narayana, Panda Maitreyee, Munisamy Malathi, Chiramel Minu J, Puri Neerja, Gupta Sandeep, Behera Biswanath, Dabas Garima
Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad, Telangana, India.
Indian Dermatol Online J. 2021 Nov 25;12(Suppl 1):S66-S70. doi: 10.4103/idoj.IDOJ_814_20. eCollection 2021 Nov.
The current scenario of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a huge disease burden worldwide affecting people across all age groups. Although children get infected by coronavirus, they are less commonly affected. Only 2% of cases are being reported among patients aged less than 20 years of age and childhood cases constitute around 1-5% of them. Moreover, they are less likely to be seriously affected when compared to adults, with more than 90% of them being either asymptomatic or having mild to moderate disease. This could be attributed to less exposure or sensitivity to COVID-19, varying immune response mechanisms, differences in the expression/function of the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 receptors or higher antibody levels to viruses owing to exposures to multiple respiratory infections, protective role of measles and BCG vaccine, and few associated comorbidities. However, children with certain underlying medical conditions like cardiac or respiratory disease, diabetes, immunodeficiency disorders, cancer or on immunosuppressants may be at a higher risk for developing severe disease.
冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的当前形势已在全球范围内造成了巨大的疾病负担，影响着所有年龄段的人群。尽管儿童会感染冠状病毒，但他们受影响的情况相对较少。在20岁以下的患者中，仅报告了2%的病例，儿童病例约占其中的1-5%。此外，与成年人相比，他们受严重影响的可能性较小，超过90%的儿童要么无症状，要么患有轻度至中度疾病。这可能归因于对COVID-19的接触或敏感性较低、免疫反应机制不同、血管紧张素转换酶2受体的表达/功能差异，或者由于接触多种呼吸道感染而对病毒具有更高的抗体水平、麻疹和卡介苗的保护作用以及较少的相关合并症。然而，患有某些基础疾病（如心脏或呼吸系统疾病、糖尿病、免疫缺陷疾病、癌症或正在服用免疫抑制剂）的儿童可能患重症的风险更高。
