anatol j fm. 2021; 4(2): 112-119 | DOI: 10.5505/anatoljfm.2021.80664

Clinical View of COVID-19 Impact on Children and Adolescents

Ernest Herbert¹, Dominique Fournier^2
1Ashfield Healthcare Ltd, United Kingdom
²Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec - Université Laval, Canada

The first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection was on 17 November 2019 according to Chinese government sources. COVID-19 symptoms among children seem to be milder compared with adults. Moreover, whether certain groups of children, for instance, those with comorbidities, may be at higher risk of more severe illness is unknown. Emerging data on the spread of COVID-19 in children have not been presented in detail. Due to its long incubation period (2–14 days) and because children can be asymptomatic or present mild, nonspecific symptoms, everyone should be considered potential COVID-19 carriers unless proven otherwise. This article is aimed at highlighting vertical transmission, clinical presentation, pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome and common COVID-19 features among children/adolescents and its impact on them. Pediatric patients with COVID-19 may not have fever or cough. However, social distancing and everyday preventive measures are necessary as those with less serious illness and others without symptoms are likely to play a major role in disease transmission.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, infectious disease transmission, vertical infectious disease transmission, pathological conditions, signs and symptoms, pediatrics

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