COVID-19 AND YOUR CHILDREN – HOW SAFE ARE THEY AND WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
Recent studies suggest that children are just as likely as adults to become infected with the virus but have fewer symptoms and less severe disease. Here are details of the most common symptoms of Covid-19 infection in children.
Recent studies suggest that children are just as likely as adults to become infected with the virus but have fewer symptoms and less severe disease. Possible reasons for this are here.
A total of 333 cases of infections in infants and children were studied. Overall, 83% of the children had a positive contact history, mostly with family members. The incubation period varied between 2 and 25 days with a mean of 7 days.
The virus could be isolated from nasopharyngeal secretions for up to 22 days and from stool for more than 30 days.
Co-infections were reported in up to 79% of children (mainly mycoplasma and influenza).
Up to 35% of children were asymptomatic. The most common symptoms were
- cough (48%),
- fever (42%) and
- pharyngitis (30%).
Further symptoms were
- nasal congestion,
- rhinorrhea (runny nose),
- tachypnoea (rapid breathing),
- wheezing,
- diarrhea,
- vomiting,
- headache and
- fatigue.
Children rarely needed admission to intensive care units (3%), and to date, only a small number of deaths have been reported in children globally.