Coronavirus: Infants at risk of contracting disease despite being largely spared, experts say after 9 cases
Though infants appear to have been largely spared in the new coronavirus outbreak, a new study shows that even they can be infected with COVID-19. Nine infants were infected with COVID-19 and were hospitalized in China between December 2019 and February 6, 2020.
According to the latest figures released by China's National Health Commission, there have been 105 more deaths, taking the death toll to 1,770 in mainland China since the outbreak began two months ago. There have been 70,548 reports of confirmed cases in China, with 2,048 new cases of confirmed infections.
The research team — from the School of Health Sciences, Wuhan University, and Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan — says that given the number of infections reported (till February 6, 2020), the number of infected infants identified was small.
"This may be due to a lower risk of exposure or incomplete identification due to mild or asymptomatic disease, rather than resistance to infection. However, this study showed that infants can be infected by COVID19; the earlier stage of the COVID-19 epidemic primarily involved adults older than 15 years," the researchers say in their findings published in JAMA.
They add, "Although a systematic and comprehensive search was made for relevant infections in infants, the epidemic is spreading rapidly and incomplete identification of cases is possible."
Previous studies suggest that COVID-19 is more likely to infect older adult men, particularly those with chronic comorbidities. For this retrospective study, the experts identified all hospitalized infants diagnosed with COVID-19 infection between December 8, 2019, and February 6, 2020, in China.
The researchers found that all patients (infants) were hospitalized. Seven patients were female. The youngest was aged 1 month and the oldest was 11 months. There were 2 patients from Beijing, 2 from Hainan, and 1 each from Guangdong, Anhui, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Guizhou.
"Seven of the 9 infant patients were female. Previous studies found higher percentages of infection in men than women. Whether female infants may be more susceptible to COVID-19 infection than male infants requires further study," say experts.
Families of all 9 infants had at least one infected family member, with the infant's infection occurring after the family members' infection.
Seven infants were reported to be either living in Wuhan or having family members who visited Wuhan, one had no direct linkage to Wuhan, and one had no information available. None of the 9 infants required intensive care or mechanical ventilation or had any severe complications, says the team.
"Four patients were reported to have a fever, 2 had mild upper respiratory tract symptoms, 1 had no symptoms but tested positive for COVID-19 in a designated screening because of exposure to infected family members, and 2 had no information on symptoms available. The time between admission and diagnosis was 1 to 3 days," says the study.
Since family clustering occurred for all infected infants, the researchers recommend that infants who have infected family members should be monitored or evaluated and family clustering should be reported to ensure a timely diagnosis.
According to the team, because infants younger than one year cannot wear masks, they require specific protective measures. "Adult caretakers should wear masks, wash hands before close contact with infants, and sterilize the infants' toys and tableware regularly," suggest researchers.