January 11 (UPI) – The COVID-19 hospitalization rate for children in the United States increased by 800% over six months between mid-May and mid-November last year, according to a study published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics.
Analysis of data from 22 U.S. states revealed that trends in hospitalization rates for children infected with the new coronavirus nationally reflect those of older adults, the researchers said.
However, while children are much less likely to be hospitalized compared to all adults, the trends are “worrying”, given that much of the focus on COVID-19’s potential for serious illness has been on risks for the elderly, they said. they.
“Although children have a very low risk of serious illnesses due to COVID-19, there is a misperception that there is no risk,” said study co-author Pinar Karaca-Mandic to UPI.
“This study demonstrates that [the virus] it has the potential to cause serious illness in children, ”said Karaca-Mandic, professor of health risk management at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Although children, adolescents and young adults accounted for about a fifth of the 22.4 million cases of COVID-19 across the country, these age groups accounted for a fraction of all hospitalizations and deaths, at least so far , according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Less than 1% of all hospitalizations and deaths related to the virus across the country involve people aged 24 and under, estimates the agency.
More than 129,000 people in the United States are hospitalized with the virus and more than 374,000 have died since the pandemic began, according to the COVID Screening Project.
For this study, Karaca-Mandic and colleagues analyzed data from more than 300,000 COVID-19-related hospitalizations in 22 states between May 15 and November 15.
Just over 5,300 of those hospitalizations involved children, the researchers said.
However, although children continue to represent relatively few of those with severe virus disease, they were hospitalized at a rate of 17.2 per 100,000 children in the general population on November 15, up from two per 100,000 six months earlier, according to The researchers.
In mid-November, South Dakota and Arizona had the highest rates of pediatric hospitalizations due to COVID-19 at 33.7 per 100,000 children in the general population and 32.8 per 100,000, the researchers said.
“Our study was not designed to analyze whether children stimulated the spread of COVID-19,” said Karaca-Mandic.
“However, in 19 of the 21 states where we could make a comparison, the growth rate in the cumulative pediatric hospitalization rates was higher than the corresponding growth rate in adult hospitalization,” she said.