Relationship with Domestic Spread and Progression of COVID-19 in Children

ABSTRACT

Objective: SARS-CoV-2 infection in children is usually mild, so the real positivity rate and the effect on children's virus spread are not excatly known. The purpose of this study is investigate the effect of children on the spread of COVID-19. Material and Methods: Children who were followed up and treated with a pre-diagnosis of COVID-19 between April and June 2020 were included in this study. The protocol for this retrospective study was approved by the Ministry of Health, Turkey, and the ethics committee of a university medical school. Data were collected retrospectively from the hospital medical system. Data analysis was done with IBM SPSS v21.0 statistical program. Categorical variables were expressed as n and %, while numerical variables were expressed as mean +/- std and median (min-max). The conformity of the data to the normal distribution was analyzed with the Kolmogorov Smirnov test. Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used in the analysis of categorical variables. In compar-isons between groups, Independent-t and Mann-Whitney U tests were used. For correlation between continuous variables, Pearson and Spear-man correlation coefficients were used. p< 0.05 was accepted for statis-tical significance. Results: A total of 205 children were hospitalized in a three-month peri-od with a suspected COVID-19 disease. SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR was positive in 72.7% of the participants from 86 different families. As the number of siblings and households increased, SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positive cases also increased and were found to be statistically significant (p< 0.05). The presence of another SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR confirmed case in the household under the age of 18 increases the clustering of cases within the family (p< 0.001). There was domestic contact in 74% of the partici-pants;this rate is 91.9% for positive cases and 26.8% for probable cases, which is statistically significant (p< 0.001). WBC, neutrophil, platelet and CRP parameters of positive cases are lower than probable cases. Conclusion: COVID-19 infection in children appears to be asymptomat-ic or mildly symptomatic. Although the role of children in the spread of COVID-19 infection is unclear, the domestic clustering rate of COVID-19 infection is high in families with many children. Therefore, in order to re-duce the spread of the disease, family clustering should be determined and quarantine measures should be taken.