ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Overall mortality in children with severe COVID is less tan 1%. In Mexico, there are no reports regarding the epidemiology or clinical characteristics of severe covid. AIM: To describe clinical characteristics in children with severe outcomes and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 in a pediatric critical care unit. METHOD(S): This retrospective cohort study enrolled participants between April 2020 and April 2021 in a pediatric terciary unit. Participants were youths aged younger than 18 years who were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection and required hospitalization for severe COVID19. Main Outcomes and Measures: Severe outcomes, defined as intensive interventions during hospitalization (eg, inotropic support, positive pressure ventilation) or death. RESULT(S): Sixteen patients met the criteria for severe COVID according to the WHO definition4, 10 patients were men (62.5%) and 6 women (37.5%), with median age of 7.16 (0.2- 15, SD 4.95), 2 children have under 1 year (12.5%), 4 children aged 1-4 (25%), 7 children aged 5-11 (43.7%) and 3 aged 12-17 (18.7). (Table 1). A higher percentage of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in our unit had an underlying condition (75%) compared with those without an underlying condition (25%) CONCLUSION(S): In our study, we found a high mortality in patients with severe COVID compared to that reported worldwide. In most of the countries across the world the mortality is less than 2%, but we found a 56% mortality. (Figure Presented).