The first year of the pandemic claimed the lives of 25 young people in England | Coronavirus

In the first year of the pandemic, 25 children and adolescents have died from direct Covid-19 in England and around 6,000 have been admitted to hospital, according to the most comprehensive analysis of national data on the group of age to date.

Children considered to be most at risk of serious illness and death from the coronavirus belonged to ethnic minority groups or had other health problems or severe disabilities.

The findings, which have not yet been peer reviewed, will be submitted to the UK Joint Committee on Immunization and Immunization (JCVI) and the Department of Health and Social Affairs (DHSC) to help inform policy on people who should be offered Covid-19 vaccines. or continued to ask for protection.

“This is essentially the first complete national cohort of children and young people affected by Covid-19,” said Professor Russell Viner, University College London (UCL) Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, who contributed to the research.

Viner added that although children and young people are known to be at low risk of serious illness or death, these findings were the first “to really and precisely, in a very large population, give us clear estimates of these. risks “.

Using data on hospital admissions covering children in England from under one to 17 years of age, researchers led by UCL doctor Joseph Ward calculated that 5,830 children and youth were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 within the first year. pandemic, until the end of February 2021.

Of these children, 251 (4%) required intensive care, which equates to a one in 50,000 chance of being admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 for those under 18.

Researchers also identified 690 children and youth who had developed the rare Covid-related disease known as pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PIMS-TS), of whom 309 required intensive care – equivalent to a risk of one in 38 911.

Ward said: “The factors linked to a higher risk of severe Covid-19 appear to be broadly consistent for children and adults. Our study found a higher risk of ICU admission among black youth compared to whites, as well as youth with health conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and cardiovascular disease. Young people with multiple illnesses were at the highest risk. “

Separately, researchers led by Clare Smith at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, looked at all child deaths that occurred in England between March 2020 and February 2021, to calculate the number that could be directly attributed to Covid-19.

They found that 25 children and youth had died from the coronavirus, which equates to an absolute risk of one in 481,000, or about two in a million. Children and youth with complex neurological disabilities were most at risk of death.

Viner said: “These new studies show that the risks of serious illness or death from Sars-CoV-2 are extremely low in children and young people. [They] are important because they will inform protection guidelines for young people as well as decisions regarding the vaccination of adolescents and children, not only in the UK but internationally.

“My personal view is that it would be very reasonable to vaccinate a number of the groups that we have studied who do not necessarily have a particularly high risk of death but their risk of having serious illness and entering into Pediatric intensive care, while still low, is still higher than the general population.

“However, it’s about having enough vaccines and waiting for some of the safety data, which is expected to increase rapidly over the next two to three weeks.”

The studies did not assess the risk of “long Covid” in those under 18. However, speaking at a separate webinar hosted by the Royal Society of Medicine, one of the country’s leading experts on the state of children and youth warned that a “tidal wave” long-term Covid infections among adolescents was on the way.

Esther Crawley, professor of child health at the University of Bristol, said some frontline doctors deny the long Covid in children. “Parents and children go to their GPs to try to seek help and are turned away.” She also said her direct experience studying the disease had convinced her that children over 12 should now be vaccinated.

The scale of the problem was also highlighted by Nathalie MacDermott, doctor and senior lecturer in pediatrics at King’s College London, who warned of the lack of pediatric resources to deal with it. “We are talking about several thousand children, youth and young adults with persistent symptoms. It could be detrimental to their education and later on our economy, not least because we don’t have enough pediatricians in this country to manage. “