Pediatric News

COVID-19 Clinical Features

Himali Meshram
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09 Apr, 2020

CLINICAL FEATURES

• The incubation period of COVID 19 is within 14 days following exposure, and most cases occur four to five days after exposure.

• Symptomatology varies from mild viral illness to critical.

• Mild infection can have mild or no pneumonia while critical disease can present with respiratory failure, multiorgan dysfunction or shock.

• Asymptomatic infections have also been described.

• Fever, cough, difficulty in breathing are most common clinical presentations.

• Myalgia, fatigue, anorexia, sore throat, headache, rhinorrhoea are lesser common presentations.

• Gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea have also been reported.

COMPLICATIONS:

• Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a major complication in patients with severe disease and can manifest shortly after the onset of dyspnea. Diabetes mellitus, hypertension and age more than 65 years were associated with increased risk of ARDS requiring mechanical ventilation.

• Severe respiratory failure

• Cardiac arrhythmias,

• Shock

• Multiorgan failure

Risk factors for severe illness:

Severe illness occurs in adults with

• advanced age - SARS-CoV-2 can infect individuals of any age, but middle aged and older adults are found to havemore severe disease.

• associated medical comorbidities - including cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease.

• Males have high number of deaths as seen in cohorts from China and Italy.

Laboratory features seen associated with worst outcomes include

• deranged liver enzymes,

• raised kidney functions,

• raised inflammatory markers,

• lymphopenia.

Impact of age:

• Individuals of any age can acquire severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, although adults of middle age and older are most commonly affected, and older adults are more likely to have severe disease.

• Infection in children is seen to be uncommon and if it occurs, is usually mild. In a Chinese study, only 2 percent of the infected individuals were younger than 20 years.

REFERENCES:

1. Mcintosh K. Coronavirus disease 2019-COVID 2019. Dated 31/3/2020.

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19?source=history_widget

2. Nicastri E, Petrosillon N, Bartoli TA, et al. National Institute for the Infectious Diseases “L. Spallanzani, IRCCS. Recommendations for COVID-19 clinical management. Infect Dis Rep.2020;12(1):8543.

COVID-19 Clinical Features

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