Dr. Barry Dworkin

From a frequency of symptoms perspective, fever, cough or shortness of breath occur in about 6 out of ten children 0-19 years of age. Point of care testing needed to help parents and schools avoid misdiagnosis when a child has the sniffles.

Medical Mythbusting Commentary for September 30, 2020

Source:
These coronavirus symptoms are more concerning for kids than the sniffles: B.C. doctor

Reference:

From UpToDate.com (last updated September 14, 2020)

In children of all ages — The symptoms of COVID-19 are similar in children and adults, but the frequency of symptoms varies. COVID-19 appears to be milder in children than in adults and their symptoms may be unrecognized before diagnosis, but severe cases have been reported.

Among 69,703 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in children <20 years reported to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by May 30, 2020, boys and girls were equally affected. In a systematic review of observational studies including 7480 children with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, predominantly from Italy, China, and the United States, the weighted mean age was 7.6 years.

Although the clinical findings in children with COVID-19 are diverse, fever and cough are the most common reported symptoms. In case surveillance in the United States (through May 30, 2020), information about symptoms was available for 5188 children age 0 through 9 years and 12,689 children age 10 through 19 years.

Among children age 0 through 9 years, the frequency of symptoms was as follows:

●Fever, cough, or shortness of breath – 63 percent

•Fever – 46 percent

•Cough – 37 percent

•Shortness of breath – 7 percent

●Myalgia – 10 percent

●Rhinorrhea – 7 percent

●Sore throat – 13 percent

●Headache – 15 percent

●Nausea/vomiting – 10 percent

●Abdominal pain – 7 percent

●Diarrhea – 14 percent

●Loss of smell or taste – 1 percent

Among children age 10 through 19 years, the frequency of symptoms was as follows:

●Fever, cough, or shortness of breath – 60 percent

•Fever – 35 percent

•Cough – 41 percent

•Shortness of breath – 16 percent

●Myalgia – 30 percent

●Rhinorrhea – 8 percent

●Sore throat – 29 percent

●Headache – 42 percent

●Nausea/vomiting – 10 percent

●Abdominal pain – 8 percent

●Diarrhea – 14 percent

●Loss of smell or taste – 10 percent

Related posts:

  1. The road back will depend on the expertise of physicians like Dr. Fauci and not the Dunning-Krugerites Dr. Oz and his friends at Fox News among others. There is a moral(e) imperative to provide the public with a plan to resume some semblance of our lives.
  2. Little being done to mitigate the unsurprising exponential increase of Covid-19 cases in Ontario. Why not employ successful measures that other countries are using to protect their citizens and remain economically functional?
  3. How can a limited vaccine supply effectively be employed to maximally reduce the rate of spread and protect the vulnerable? Network scientists have a counterintuitive proposal.
  4. There comes a point when dire modelling scenarios will fail to have the desired impact on a bludgeoned portion of the population that are doing their part. 8 months in, those who haven’t will carry on snubbing the recommendations. Next message strategy?