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Rodriguez-Artalejo FAuthorRey, Cristina CalvoAuthor

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COVID in Pediatric Age:: an opinion paper

Publicated to:Revista Espanola de Quimioterapia. 35 (4): 333-343 - 2022-08-01 35(4), DOI: 10.37201/req/012.2022

Authors: Hernandez-Sampelayo, Teresa; Gomez-Pavon, Javier; Gonzalez del Castillo, Juan; Cruz Martin-Delgado, Mari; Javier Martin-Sanchez, Francisco; Martinez-Selles, Manuel; Moreno Guillen, Santiago; Rodriguez-Artalejo, Fernando; Ruiz-Galiana, Julian; Canton, Rafael; De Lucas Ramos, Pilar; Garcia-Botella, Alejandra; Garcia-Lledo, Alberto; Rey, Cristina Calvo; Bouza, Emilio

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Abstract

The incidence of COVID in pediatrics was underestimat-ed during the first months of the pandemic due to the oligo-symptomatic nature of the infection in many children and the scarcity of diagnostic tests applied to this population. It is now accepted that children are infected and transmit the disease in the same way as adults. On the contrary, children have less severe and less lethal COVID, probably due to a lower maturity of the child’s immune system, a lower number of ACE2 receptors and the lower presence of comorbidities in this population group. The development of a multisystemic inflammatory syndrome after SARS-CoV-2 infection in children, despite its rari-ty, is a very serious condition that frequently requires intensive care. Other less severe post-COVID manifestations have been described in children but are not yet well defined. COVID has had and continues to have a significant psychological impact on the children themselves, on their caregivers and on the exacerbation of pre-existing psychiatric conditions. We apply adult therapeutic principles to children but with very low levels of evidence. Information on the tolerability of the available medications in this population group is still scarce. The mortality of COVID in children is very low and gen-erally affects children with significant comorbidities. There are, at present, three vaccines licensed for pediatric use which are compatible with all other vaccines applicable to children. In these circumstances, there has been much speculation about the indication for vaccination in the pediatric age group, but given its good tolerance, there are clinical and ethical rea-sons that, in our opinion, justify it. © 2022, Sociedad Espanola de Quiminoterapia. All rights reserved.

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