Figure - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Content may be subject to copyright.
Demographic and clinical data of ALL children included in the SARS-CoV-2 period prevalence study at Tygerberg Hospital 13 -26 August 2020
Source publication
Background: Identification of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals is imperative to prevent hospital transmission, but symptom-based screening may fail to identify asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic infectious children and their caregivers. Methods: A COVID-19 period prevalence study was conducted between 13 and 26 August 2020 at Tygerberg Hospital, testin...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... median age of all children was 19.3 months (interquartile range "IQR" 4.6-65.4) with 54.6% (107/196) males; 1.5% (3/196) children were HIV-infected, 60.4% (119/196) HIVnegative, with HIV status unknown in 38.1% (75/196) children (Table 1). The SARS-CoV-2 period prevalence in admitted children was 5.6% (11/196) compared to 15.5% (18/116) in accompanying asymptomatic caregivers (p<0.01). ...Similar publications
Objective
On 4 March 2022, the first community-acquired case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was reported in Vanuatu, with community transmission occurring subsequently. It was expected that the number of notified SARS-CoV-2 cases would be an underestimate of the true infection rate of this outbreak; however, the mag...
Citations
... Study 5 was open label, while the remaining five studies were blinded. Data were collected from the pre-pandemic period, 11 March 2019 to 10 March 2020, through the pandemic period, 11 March 2020 to 27 April 2022 and described by quarter ( Table 2). The baseline demographics of trial participants, by trial and overall, are described in Table 3. Overall, there was an even distribution between males and females. ...
... Study 5 was open label, while the remaining five studies were blinded. Data were collected from the pre-pandemic period, 11 March 2019 to 10 March 2020, through the pandemic period, 11 March 2020 to 27 April 2022 and described by quarter ( Table 2). The baseline demographics of trial participants, by trial and overall, are described in Table 3. Overall, there was an even distribution between males and females. ...
... This may represent under-reporting in the pediatric population due to fewer, less severe symptoms or lack of test availability early in the pandemic. 10, 11 Smit, et al., noted a poor correlation between SARS-CoV-2 symptoms and RT-PCR positivity in children screened in 2020. 11 In fact, in this study only 5.6% of children, with or without symptoms, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR, while SARS-CoV-2 positivity was 15.5% in asymptomatic caregivers. ...
The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as the resulting public health measures, impacted many aspects of society. The conduct of important pediatric vaccine trials was among these. Analyzing data from six ongoing non-COVID-19 pediatric vaccine trials we aimed to assess the operational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic using descriptive analyses. We identified multiple operational disruptions in trial conduct. Additionally, we identified higher percentages of missed routine vaccinations than investigational vaccines throughout the observation period. Overall, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was most apparent early in the pandemic period while adaptations to the pandemic were developed; however, some disruptions persisted throughout the observation period. Pediatric vaccine clinical trials are critical to developing new and/or improved vaccines for the pediatric population. Continued evaluation of the impacts of COVID-19 on pediatric vaccine clinical trials is warranted.
... A review of children with COVID-19 hospitalized at Tygerberg Hospital reported that 19.4% of children hospitalized with PCR-conformed SARS-CoV-2 had diarrhoea as a symptom [27]. Diarrhoea is reported in 2-50% of pediatric and adolescents with COVID-19 [28,29]. We were not able to review individual patient data to assess testing for COVID-19 in children with diarrhoea. ...
Background
COVID-19 pandemic measures resulted in the de-escalation of non-COVID-19 healthcare provision.
Methods
A retrospective cross-sectional study of routinely collected data was done to investigate the effect of COVID-19 policies on the healthcare utilization and mortality of children younger than 5 years in Eastern Cape Town, South Africa. We compared visits to primary and urgent care facilities, hospitalization, in-hospital deaths, and vaccine uptake from 1 January to 31 December 2020 to similar periods in 2018 and 2019.
Results
During April and May 2020, the most restricted period, visits to primary care facilities declined from 126 049 in 2019 to 77 000 (1.8-fold; p < 0.05). This corresponded with a 1.2-fold reduction in the provision of the first dose of measles vaccine at 6 months compared to 2019. Throughout 2020 there was a 4-fold decline in the number of fully immunized children at 1 year of age (p = 0.84). Emergency room visits fell by 35.7% in 2020 (16 368) compared to 2019 (25 446). Hospital admissions decreased significantly (p < 0.01) in 2020 (9810) compared to 2018 (11 698) and 2019 (10 247). The in-hospital mortality rate increased from 2.3% (96/4163) in 2019 to 3.8% (95/2498) (p < 0.01) in Tygerberg Hospital, where 80% (95/119) of deaths were recorded. Twelve of the 119 (10%) deaths occurred in HIV-positive children (p = <0.01).
Conclusion
Measures instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to healthcare services for children. This resulted in an immediate, and potential future, indirect effect on child morbidity and mortality in Cape Town.
