Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany.
Institute of Virology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany.
Viruses. 2022 Jul 23;14(8):1607. doi: 10.3390/v14081607.
Almost two and a half years after the appearance of the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 in December 2019, more than 500 million people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and over 6 million have died of it worldwide. In terms of the pediatric cohort, it already became evident at an early stage that the infection causes milder symptoms in children and rarely runs a fatal course.
This work presents data gathered over a period of over two years in patients between the age of 0 and 18 years. The aim is to provide information on the clinical aspects of the five different SARS-CoV-2 waves.
Between 13 March 2020 and 22 April 2022, all nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) of children who received a swab for SARS-CoV-2 at our clinic were included. Data were collected on standardized questionnaires. The analysis of the data was anonymized and retrospective.
We investigated 21,635 NAATs, of which 1028 of the tests were positive (4.8%). The highest rate of positive results was observed in the fifth wave (541/2.292 NAATs (23.6%)). Most of the children who were hospitalized were hospitalized in wave three (22.9%). The availability of a vaccine was followed by a decrease in positive NAATs in the corresponding age group thereafter.
These data underline the fact that children infected with SARS-CoV-2, regardless of which VOC, are often only mildly affected. Vaccinations seem to remain the key to avoid massive numbers of infected people and a potential collapse of the healthcare systems.
本研究收集了超过两年时间内 0 至 18 岁患者的数据，旨在提供有关五次不同 SARS-CoV-2 波的临床方面的信息。
2020 年 3 月 13 日至 2022 年 4 月 22 日，我们对在诊所接受 SARS-CoV-2 拭子的所有儿童的核酸扩增检测（NAAT）进行了分析。数据收集基于标准化问卷。对数据的分析进行了匿名和回顾性处理。
我们共检测了 21635 次 NAAT，其中 1028 次检测呈阳性（4.8%）。第五波阳性结果率最高（541/2292 次 NAAT（23.6%））。大多数住院的患儿都在第三波住院（22.9%）。此后，疫苗接种的普及使相应年龄组的阳性 NAAT 数量减少。
这些数据强调了一个事实，即感染 SARS-CoV-2 的儿童，无论感染的是哪种 VOC，通常症状都很轻微。接种疫苗似乎仍然是避免大量感染和潜在医疗系统崩溃的关键。
