COVID‐19 in Turkey: A tertiary center experience

• Published in: Pediatrics International Vol. 63; no. 7; pp. 797 - 805
• Main Authors: Önal, Pınar, Kılınç, Ayşe Ayzıt, Aygün, Fatih, Durak, Cansu, Çokuğraş, Haluk
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Australia John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.07.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: children; COVID‐19; Original; SARS‐CoV‐2; COVID-19; children; SARS-CoV-2
• ISSN: 1328-8067; 1442-200X
• DOI: 10.1111/ped.14549

Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has caused a serious epidemic in our country and all over the world since December 2019 and has become a global health problem. The disease caused by the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus has been named as coronavirus disease 19 (COVID‐19). Methods We report on the epidemiological and clinical features of 37 children diagnosed with COVID‐19. Results The median age was of the children was 10 years and 57.1% were male. In addition, 78.3% of the children had a history of contact with adult patients who had been diagnosed with COVID‐19, and 27.0% had coexisting medical conditions. We found that 40.5% of our patients had mild infection, while 32.4% had moderate infection, and 27.1% had developed severe or critical illness. The most common abnormal laboratory findings in our patients were decreased lymphocytes (45.9%) and increased D‐dimer values (43.2%), while abnormal radiological findings were detected in 56.7% of the children. In addition, 64.8% of the children had received azithromycin, 59.4% had received oseltamivir, and hydroxychloroquine was used in combination with azithromycin in 35.1% of the children. Non‐invasive mechanical ventilation was required in 27.0% of the children. Conclusions Although COVID‐19 infection is usually mild in children, severe illness can be seen in children with comorbidities, or even in children who were previously healthy.