ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Early reports suggest that most children infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ("SARS-CoV-2") have mild symptoms. What is not known is whether children with chronic respiratory illnesses have exacerbations associated with SARS-CoV-2 virus. METHODS: An expert panel created a survey, which was circulated twice (in April and May 2020) to members of the Paediatric Assembly of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and via the social media of the ERS. The survey stratified patients by the following conditions: asthma, cystic fibrosis (CF), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and other respiratory conditions. RESULTS: In total 174 centres responded to at least one survey. 80 centres reported no cases, whereas 94 entered data from 945 children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 was isolated from 49 children with asthma of whom 29 required no treatment, 19 needed supplemental oxygen and four children required mechanical ventilation. Of the 14 children with CF and COVID-19, 10 required no treatment and four had only minor symptoms. Among the nine children with BPD and COVID-19, two required no treatment, five required inpatient care and oxygen and two were admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) requiring invasive ventilation. Data were available from 33 children with other conditions and SARS-CoV-2 of whom 20 required supplemental oxygen and 11 needed noninvasive or invasive ventilation. CONCLUSIONS: Within the participating centres, in children with asthma and CF, infection with SARS-CoV-2 was well tolerated, but a substantial minority of children with BPD and other conditions required ventilatory support indicating that these latter groups are at risk from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Life-supporting first-aid (LFSA) training in primary schools might prove a useful means of increasing cardiac arrest survival rates. We thus studied the feasibility of introducing first-aid training to 6-7-year old primary school children. METHODS AND RESULTS: During 1 week medical students and emergency physicians provided LSFA training to 47 first- and second-year pupils, including semi-automatic defibrillation. A course assessment was made using cartoon-style questionnaires for the pupils, video tapes of the training and telephone interviews with the children's parents. Prior to training, only eight pupils (17%) were able to place in the correct sequence a series of pictures illustrating the various stages of the procedure of semi-automatic defibrillation. After training that figure rose to 24 (51%). Using a semi-automatic defibrillator, excellent performances were recorded by video camera in eight pupils. Post-training telephone interviews were conducted with 34 parents (79%), 28 (82%) of whom now considered their children capable of reacting properly in an emergency situation. The children had been given stickers displaying the European Emergency Call Number 112 together with a set of brochures. In 25 cases (74%), the children applied the stickers to their parents phones at home. CONCLUSIONS: LSFA training is a feasible proposition for 6-7-year olds who might well be in a position to save the lives of cardiac-arrest victims. Future training sessions should determine the impact of repeat courses and the findings should be used to convince politicians and administrators of the need of LSFA training as a mandatory subject in schools.
