ABSTRACT
Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. After the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some children infected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) showed clinical symptoms similar to KD, indicating a close relationship between KD and SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, we designed this retrospective study to analyze the characteristics of KD patients before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We retrospectively collected demographic and laboratory data of KD patients in Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2020. Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University is located in eastern China and is the largest pediatric heart disease center in the region, which includes a population of nearly 10 million. We studied the characteristics of KD patients and analyzed the changes in these characteristics before and after the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in this area. Results: The analysis revealed the following novel features: (1) Under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the onset age of Kawasaki disease became younger. (2) After the occurrence of COVID-19, the hospitalization days of KD patients were shorter than before the pandemic. (3) After the occurrence of COVID-19, the albumin of KD patients was higher than before the pandemic. (4) The COVID-19 pandemic did not have a significant effect on the incidence of coronary artery lesions (CALs) in Kawasaki disease. Conclusion: After the COVID-19 outbreak, the characteristics of KD patients showed a younger trend of age, shorter hospitalization days and higher levels of albumin, but the incidence of CALs did not change significantly.
ABSTRACT
Objective To establish an index system for comprehensive evaluation of public health risks of the coronavirus diseases 2019(COVID-19),and to evaluate the COVID-19 in different counties(districts) of Wenzhou, so as to provide scientific evidence for the implementation of targeted prevention and control measures. Methods Rank-sum ratio(RSR) was used to evaluate 12 quality indicators of 5 categories by brain storming method with data including the incidence of COVID-19 and public health risks of COVID-19 epidemic in Wenzhou during January and February, 2020.The regional public health risks of COVID-19 were ranked according to rank-sum ratio size. Results The top three counties(districts) with most reported cases were Yueqing,Rui′an and Lucheng,accounting for 61.90%(312/504) of the total number in Wenzhou.The ratio of import cases to indigenous cases was 1∶1.39.The top three counties(districts) reported most clustering epidemics were Yueqing,Rui′an and Lucheng,accounting for 62.03%(49/79) of the total number in Wenzhou.About 70.63%(356/504)of the cases were found before the medical visit.The time from onset to first medical visit was 2.39 d, and the time from medical visit to diagnosis was 4.49 d.The average number of close contacts for confirmed cases was 29,and the top three counties(districts)with most reported average number of close contacts were Jingkai(135 cases),Dongtou(59 cases)and Cangnan(50 cases).Among all13 counties(districts),Longgang,Wencheng and Jingkai were at lower level,Yueqing and Lucheng were at higher level,and the other counties(districts)were at the middle level of public health risks of COVID-19. Conclusions RSR method is flexible and simple.It has no specific requirements on samples,and can eliminate the effects of comprehensive assessment indexes of different dimension.It has high value in evaluating public health risks of the COVID-19.The evaluating of public health risks of COVID-19 should be strengthened.Targeted prevention and control measures should be taken to positively prevent the outbreak of COVID-19.