Profile of children with COVID-19 infection: a cross sectional study from North-East Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION: available evidence suggests that children infected with COVID-19 tend to have a less severe form of the disease. However, most of the studies that have established this largely emanate from outside sub-Saharan Africa. The pandemic nature of the infection makes it instructive to evaluate its pattern among children across different climes, including ours. This study was set out to describe the clinical characteristics of children with COVID-19 in Bauchi State, North-East Nigeria. METHODS: this was a cross sectional study that involved 53 children between the ages of 0 and 18 years, who had RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 infection between March and June 2020 in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Data on epidemiological and clinical characteristics was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics V 21.® Relationship between categorical variables was established using the chi square test. The level of statistical significance was set at < 0.05, at a confidence interval (CI) of 95%. RESULTS: the mean age was 12.63 ± 4.31 years with a slight preponderance of males (1.1: 1). Majority were asymptomatic (60.4%), while 32.1% and 7.5% had mild and moderate diseases respectively. The most common symptoms were cough (20.8%), fever (17%), and sneezing (15.1%). Five children (9.4%) complained of loss of taste while anosmia was documented in one child (1.9%). We observed a significant relationship between age category and the presence of symptoms. In fact, children younger than 10 years (pre-adolescents) were five times more likely to be symptomatic when compared to those above this age (p = 0.029, C I 1.08-21.56). CONCLUSION: our findings have shown a mild pattern of disease and good outcome among infected children. However, we must be mindful of the higher vulnerability among younger children, especially those below 10 years.

Profile of children with COVID-19 infection: a cross sectional study from North-East Nigeria

Introduction: available evidence suggests that children infected with COVID-19 tend to have a less severe form of the disease. However, most of the studies that have established this largely emanate from outside sub-Saharan Africa. The pandemic nature of the infection makes it instructive to evaluate its pattern among children across different climes, including ours. This study was set out to describe the clinical characteristics of children with COVID-19 in Bauchi State, North-East Nigeria.Methods: this was a cross sectional study that involved 53 children between the ages of 0 and 18 years, who had RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 infection between March and June 2020 in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Data on epidemiological and clinical characteristics was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics V 21.® Relationship between categorical variables was established using the chi square test. The level of statistical significance was set at < 0.05, at a confidence interval (CI) of 95%.Results: the mean age was 12.63 ± 4.31 years with a slight preponderance of males (1.1:1). Majority were asymptomatic (60.4%), while 32.1% and 7.5% had mild and moderate diseases respectively. The most common symptoms were cough (20.8%), fever (17%), and sneezing (15.1%). Five children (9.4%) complained of loss of taste while anosmia was documented in one child (1.9%). We observed a significant relationship between age category and the presence of symptoms. In fact, children younger than 10 years (pre-adolescents) were five times more likely to be symptomatic when compared to those above this age (p = 0.029, C I 1.08-21.56).Conclusion: our findings have shown a mild pattern of disease and good outcome among infected children. However, we must be mindful of the higher vulnerability among younger children, especially those below 10 years

Nutritional status in cerebral palsy: A Cross-sectional comparative survey of children in Kano, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a common neurodevelopmental motor disorder resulting from early childhood brain insult. Nutrition in children is very important for growth and development. This is more so in those with chronic illnesses such as CP. This study was conducted with the aim of assessing the anthropometry and anthropometric indices of CP children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This comparative, cross-sectional study recruited 150 children with CP matched for age and sex, with 150 children without CP (as controls). The participants' socio-demographic and CP-related data were collected using a pre-tested questionnaire designed for the study. The weight and height of the subjects were measured. Nutritional status was determined using the World Health Organization Z-scores. RESULTS: Overall prevalence of malnutrition in CP subjects was 86%. This was significantly higher than in controls, whose prevalence was 55.3% (χ2 = 34.027,P < 0.0001). The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight in CP subjects was 53.3%, 57.5% and 66.9%, respectively. These were also significantly higher than those of controls who had prevalence of stunting being 16.7%, wasting 8.5% and underweight 14.8%. CONCLUSION: This study found a high prevalence of malnutrition (especially under-nutrition) and therefore underscores the need for more emphases on nutritional assessment, counselling and management in CP patients.