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THE MAJORITY OF children and adolescents experience mild symptoms when diagnosed with Covid-19 and only a small number die from the disease, according to a new study published in the Lancet Journal.
The multinational study of 582 children and adolescents under the age of 18 noted there were only four deaths, less than 1% of the sample taken.
While 8% of those experienced severe symptoms from the disease and were admitted to ICU, researchers pointed out the study was hospital-based and therefore that figure may not accurately represent the impact of the disease on those under-18 in the wider community.
The study, which included children and adolescents aged from three days up to 18 years old found that fewer than one in ten patients required treatment in intensive care – 8% or 48 patients.
Researchers note that their study only involved patients who had sought medical help and been tested for Covid-19, and so milder cases would not have been included.
However, they say their findings should be taken into consideration when planning for demand on intensive care services as the pandemic progresses.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has previously published summaries investigating the international evidence on immunity and the spread of the virus by children.
“An Australian study that examined potential spread from 18 confirmed (nine students and nine staff) cases to over 800 close contacts in 15 different schools found that no teacher or staff member contracted Covid-19 from any of the initial school cases,” Hiqa deputy chief executive and director of health technology assessment Dr Mairin Ryan said.
Dr Marc Tebruegge from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health in London, and lead author of the latest study said: “Our study provides the most comprehensive overview of Covid-19 in children and adolescents to date.
“We were reassured to observe that the case fatality rate in our cohort was very low and it is likely to be substantially lower still, given that many children with mild disease would not have been brought to medical attention and therefore not included in this study.
“Overall, the vast majority of children and young people experience only mild disease. Nevertheless, a notable number of children do develop severe disease and require intensive care support, and this should be accounted for when planning and prioritising healthcare resources as the pandemic progresses.”
The study was carried out over a 3.5 week period from 1 to 24 April 2020, during the initial peak of the European Covid-19 pandemic. It involved 82 specialist healthcare institutions across 25 European countries.
Symptoms
Researchers found that the most common symptom reported was fever – 65% or 379 patients reported fever.
Around half of the patients had signs of upper respiratory tract infection – 54% or 313 patients.
A quarter had evidence of pneumonia – 25%, or 143. Gastrointestinal symptoms were also reported in around a quarter of the children – 22% or 128 and some 40 of those did not have any respiratory symptoms.
Some 92 children, most of whom were tested due to close contact with a known Covid-19 case, had no symptoms at all – 16% of all patients in the study.
Dr Florian Götzinger, from Wilhelminenspital in Vienna, Austria, said: “Although Covid-19 affects children less severely than adults overall, our study shows that there are severe cases in all age groups. Those who have pre-existing health issues and children under one month of age were more likely to be admitted to intensive care.”
Four patients died during the study period, two of whom had pre-existing medical conditions. All of the patients who died were older than 10 years of age. However, the overwhelming majority of patients were alive when the study closed.
Meanwhile, a second study also published in the Lancet Journal today has pointed to brain complications in some patients of Covid-19.
A study of 153 patients treated in UK hospitals during the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic describes a range of neurological and psychiatric complications that may be linked to the disease.
Researchers say their report offers the first detailed snapshot of the breadth of neurological complications in Covid-19 patients and should help to direct future research to establish the mechanisms of such complications so that potential treatments can be developed.
The most common brain complication observed was stroke, which was reported in 77 of 125 patients.
Of these, 57 patients had a stroke caused by a blood clot in the brain, known as an ischaemic stroke, nine patients had a stroke caused by a brain haemorrhage, and one patient had a stroke caused by inflammation in the blood vessels of the brain.
Age data was available for 74 of the patients who experienced a stroke and the majority – 82% – were over 60 years of age.
Some 39 patients showed signs of confusion or changes in behaviour reflecting an altered mental state.
Of these, nine patients had unspecified brain dysfunction, known as encephalopathy, and seven patients had inflammation of the brain, medically termed encephalitis. Long-term follow-up studies to assess duration and severity of these complications are needed.
Dr Benedict Michael, one of the lead authors of the study, from the University of Liverpool, said: “Our study is an important early step towards defining neurological complications in Covid-19 patients, which will help with health policy planning as well as informing the immediate next steps in Covid-19 neuroscience research.”
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Sizeable fines OR Community Work should be imposed, along with deductions from salary/dole to go towards replacement of equipment.
@Me Me: not going to happen, the law only applies to law abiding citizens. If they’ve no fear of being caught, then there is no deterrent to stop them doing what their doing.
@Electro Box: Ireland loves privatising once government bodies… they should do that with prisons.
@P. V. Aglue: it’s getting to the point that the social contract we have with those in authority is crumbling. No one trusts that dep of justice the guards or other government departments will or can do anything. Might as well employ vigilantes to go after these people
I am sorry to hear that such occurred. Ireland isn’t the Ireland that I grew up in. Give me back the 70s and 80s again. We may have had nothing, but next door had little more, if that. And I fear that this is just the start of it.
6 individuals, I bet my house on it, that the nationality comes into question. But of course, even if caught, it won’t be made public, we wouldn’t want to show up those who give out the social welfare payments to the group. And still, there isn’t enough here so open up, let’s increase the population a little bit more, for the next 5 years. Put more strain on resources, watch the Irish die due to the lack of care/support but that doesn’t matter as long as we keep Europe happy. May as well scrap the Irish constitution and slap us with the European one. I digress
@John Aherne: get outta here with that sentimental claptrap. We had a police force, courts and prisons in the 70’s and 80’s, as I recall. They weren’t standing around doing nothing waiting for crime to reach Ireland
@John Aherne: word salad and you seems to think the solution is simple. It isn’t. What a time to be alive !
@offside again: What a time to be alive – Yeah, especially if you win the AHB lottery and get a €600-800k home for nothing from our housing quangos + the state pays to rear your kids.
Not so good if you’re a regular couple that want to buy a home and do the right things – then you’re bidding against government quangos + foreign and Irish investors and end up paying over 1/2 a million for a crummy ex corpo house.
@Electro Box: the country is mismanaged, no doubt about it.
It’s run by Irish people. So work that one out …
@John Aherne: Absolutely spot on John… but sssshhhh as we’ll appear as far right racists.
@offside again: Use a logical approach to resolving it to some degree, hard work, and keep on top of the foundation that has been laid down. Nobody mentioned that it was going to be simple. But, seeing your comment along with another, simple does show face, but I would never kick simple when it thinks it’s an enthusiastic time to be alive.
@Donna Fallon: Thank you, Donna. I’ll be sure to keep sssshhhh on it. It’ll be our little secret. Many thanks for the tip.
Racist, if we were all to be cut, we bleed the same colour. I see nothing racist in that (the latter for those who deem me one)
@Ronan Mc: One day, you might even make sense. Another day, you may complete a sentence.
@John Aherne: what ?
@Ronan Mc: Yes, and Dublin is very safe, Helen McEntee said so!
@John Aherne: what are you in all that is not mighty talking about? Have you ever lived near Aungier Street? No you haven’t because I know by reading your nonsense you have not. It’s always had burglaries, it’s always had muggings, it’s always had a lot of issues with “our own” crowd even if this was carried out by non-nationals. You are so deluded if you think you know our city centre.
@John Aherne: lads come on. Only a few months ago. All these morans as u call them. Where re elected by us the irish people. And we will continue to do so. So we have made our bed as we always do. So now we must lie in the it.
@John Flanagan: Now, with that, I concur. The definition of insanity
@TheGood Feign: By your definition, Dublin is indeed a kip. I concur. And you are correct, I do not live in the kip, nor would I want to live in the kip. Your city center has been all over the news, not in a good light. I believe the best part of “your city” can be viewed in the rear view mirror of a car. Deluded I am not, I am well aware of the fact that “your city” is a kip, as to which you have confirmed, confirmation that wasn’t needed, but keyboard warriors will do what keyboard warriors do. You think, therefore, you are!
@Ronan Mc: well they were letting the Catholic Church get away with literally anything for decades so…
@Electro Box:There is no fault in anything that you mentioned. Those in government, although not my first choice, what is the alternative. SF would bring this country to its knees, in my opinion. So we are stuck at the moment with what we have. There is no point in having the Taliban coffee mornings so to bitch about what’s going on, health, housing, immigration etc etc. As for religion, it has done nothing but cause wars. The “good book”, in that, the man upstairs has killed in the millions, the guy downstairs, less than a dozen. The freakish ideas of Lotts two daughters, the toying with Abraham to sacrifice his son, and this is in the same faith. Now mix cultures, and see what you get. I am glad to be an evolutionist. Recently, I read an article here, Valentines Day stabbing. Go figure
@John Aherne: you missed the gang violence on the 70S and the crime caused by heroin addiction in the 80s. Dublin is far safer today
@JoeJoe Kilbride: Dublin is far safer now, er, um, is that the line from the previous minister for justice, as she walked aided by Garda on either side of her? Do you have such security with you, seeing that you’d be quite comfortable to venture through the streets and lanes of the city. I did not miss the violence of those decades, but if memory serves me, it was Dublin, the “goodfeign guys Dublin,” that was affected. And it spread through the country thereafter, and today, we can see how bad the country is with all that stuff and more. You can keep your city, and I’ll extend the border to the county itself, and I’ll stick to my piece of the country. I know which is on the news a lot more, and it isn’t here where I am located.
@John Aherne: There was a documentary on about Hutch the last two weeks and it featured Dublin City centre and the crime sprees these gangs went on in the 70s and 80d and everything about it, the city in particular looked grim. Not to mention the mass emigration of the time. Everyone seems to look back at everything through rose tinted glasses. That said I don’t know why the book just isn’t thrown at these people when caught.
@John Moore: Rose tinted vision, I again find myself in agreement. At the time, the West was not affected, and Dublin was in the media at the time. When it wasn’t on my doorstep, it could easily be dismissed as, ” That’s up there, not here.” But, bejaysus, did it spread throughout the country like wildfire. Within the court system, logic has no place inside those doors. The truth has no place inside those doors. It’s the best story that wins. With a judicial system like that, revolving door syndrome occurs, Gardaí at a loss as to what to do, when all of their hard work counts for nothing. Two things that haven’t improved in the last 40 years are, 1. the legal system, and the 2nd, the health system.
@TheGood Feign: I’m just listening to radio 1, American tourists in an airbandb circa Pearce Street. Some guy comes in at 12.30 am while they’re watching TV. Wearing a bala and bringing his trusty knife with him, proceeded to take said TV off the wall, he then creates a comedy of errors (he must be a Dub) trying to get out with TV under his arm. What a lovely kip to live in!
Suspect in fatal stabbing of Quham Babatunde on South Anne Street was on bail for violent incident involving knife.
@Chris: if true,I’m not a bit surprised.
@Chris: But But there’s no unvetted people coming into the country the government said, seems like alot of these asylum seekers are running for justice elsewhere, one arrested today in Belfast running back to the UK, I wonder where else he ran from, why aren’t the media naming those arrested, trying to hide shit from people again at the request of the government I suppose.
Horrible to see this happen, but are you seriously telling me that 300€ in a tip jar was left there overnight?
@Electro Box: That’s fair, but those jars are emptied and divided at end of day. They may leave some change in for next day.
The Government are far too soft on people who are found guilty of theft/burglary. You read about people being convicted and it says it is their 10th conviction or whatever number you want to choose.
There is absolutely no deterrent, because they are likely to either get off for a first offence, or they get a very short sentence. And if they do get a sentence, they only serve half of it.
Then you have all these civil liberty type, do gooders that says prison does not work. You have to look at the causes of them stealing. Yes of course you do but there should be far stiffer sentences for those who commit crimes.
It is ridiculous that the guards spend so much time and resources in actually catching some offenders, and then the judge lets them off. Only for them to reoffend.
It is wokeism at its best, even though I hate using that term. Simon Harris is a perfect example of this, coming on and condemning crimes but doing absolutely nothing that will deter them.
@Joseph Fitzgibbon: We have to bring in 3 strikes laws. Mandatory sentence after three strikes should be automatic ten years. Same for 14-18 year olds
@Bingbangbong: Unfortunately you know, I know, we all know that that is not going to happen. They have rights, no responsibilities, only rights. Sad that it’s come to this.
@Bingbangbong:
Absolutely.
The toe rags will never change.
They are incapable of working for a wage,and probably have no education,or qualifications.
5 yrs in jail should be the norm for persistent crimes.
Their mugshot displayed so that people can protect their property.
The guards arrived half an hour later, no rush, lads
@N D K: no rush,that’s a decent response by today’s standards.
Past time to start deporting,we have gangs of criminal immigrants carrying knives !! Wakey Wakey Ireland ! Any sign of mehole Martin and his pet fly Harris ? Off interfering in Ukraine or gaze no doubt
@Electro Box: I lived in Dublin north inner city mid to late 80s as a student and in my first jobs. Great craic but it was always a bit dodgy. Shortest way back was by the Ilac Center, often populated by ciderheads and glue sniffers.
And into the mix throw the criminals’ friend, judge you NO… who, & we all know precisely what’s going to happen. Absolutely NOTHING meaningful. What an expensive waste.
Two burglaries in their current premises and they moved from Denmark Sweet because of raids there. Just awful
Whats so wrong with lengthy sentences and building a new super prison as planned 25 years ago? Are we in denial about crime and punishment by trying to help the poor offenders? Time for action.
Time to follow DIRTY HARRY approach to these detritus as custodial sentences appear to be not working
If the Gardai don’t get off their arses soon someone will be killed, either innocent citizens or some of the feral youths roaming around!
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