Demographic Profile And Clinical Outcome of Pediatric COVID-19 Patients Admitted In Dhaka Medical College Hospital

Abstract

Background: Corona Virus Disease 19 (Covid 19) is a global pandemic. Children of all ages are infected but had less severe outcome than adults. Infants were more vulnerable and case fatality is higher in this age group. Most patients experience milder symptoms but patients with co-morbid disease had moderate to severe disease.

Method: This is a descriptive study of 400 patients which was conducted at Department of Pediatrics of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, during the period from May 2020 to August 2021.

Results: Patients in the second wave were younger. The disease severity, complications and case fatality rate were higher than those in the first wave. In the second wave, there were more neonates, younger children and adolescent. The most frequent signs and symptoms in both waves were fever, dyspnea and cough, and the most relevant comorbidities were malignancy, renal, cardiovascular diseases and chronic neurological diseases. Patients from the second wave more frequently presented renal and gastrointestinal symptoms, were more often treated with conventional oxygen therapy, anticoagulants and corticoids and non- invasive mechanical ventilation and less often with invasive mechanical ventilation. These results might help to understand the characteristics of the second wave and the behavior and danger of SARS-CoV-2 in Bangladesh and surrounding countries. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Conclusion: The results of the present study shows higher number of infants are infected and higher domestic contact history and history of travel is observed in second wave. These results might help to understand the characteristics of this second wave. We think that COVID-19 will not disappear soon. New variants of the virus may appear, the vaccination process can predictably last all year 2023 or more, until a sufficiently high percentage of the population is protected. We must remain vigilant in the constant study and disseminate our results to the scientific community to formulate strategies and guidelines for prevention and treatment of future waves.

Chest Heart J. 2023; 47(1) : 58-62