Trop Med Int Health . Coronavirus Disease-19 deaths among children and adolescents in an area of Northeast, Brazil: why so many?

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Trop Med Int Health


. 2020 Nov 20.
doi: 10.1111/tmi.13529. Online ahead of print.
Coronavirus Disease-19 deaths among children and adolescents in an area of Northeast, Brazil: why so many?


Aline de Siqueira Alves Lopes ¹ , Sarah Cristina Fontes Vieira ¹ , Roseane Lima Santos Porto ² , Victor Santana Santos ^{3 4} , Debora Cristina Fontes Leite ⁵ , Luis Eduardo Cuevas ⁶ , Ricardo Queiroz Gurgel ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 33217116
• DOI: 10.1111/tmi.13529

Abstract

Objective: To describe COVID-19 deaths among children and adolescents in Sergipe, Brazil.
Methods: Ecological study of all COVID-19 reported cases and deaths occurring in children and adolescents <19 years of age in Sergipe reported by the health surveillance and mortality information systems of Sergipe's Health Secretary and hospital records.
Results: 37 deaths of children <19 years old were reported up to 30^th September 2020, corresponding to 4.87 deaths for 100,000 population <19 years old. Most deaths occurred among infants (44.1/100,000), and this age group had the highest case fatality rate (15.3 %). Most children had comorbidities such as chronic neurological diseases (n=7; 19%) and prematurity (n=4; 11%). Most children who died (n=18; 49%) were not admitted to intensive care units (ICU).
Conclusion: COVID-19 mortality in children and adolescents in Sergipe was higher than in other Brazilian states and in high-income countries. A large proportion of the deaths occurred among children with co-morbidities and a minority of children were admitted to ICU, reflecting the limited provision of such beds in the State. Newborns and infants are a high-risk group that must have priority in health public policy.

Keywords: Adolescents; COVID-19; Children; Deaths; Mortality.