Prevalence of COVID-19 among hospitalized infants varies with levels of community transmission
2021-06-30
(Press-News.org) How common COVID-19 is among infants may depend on the degree of the pandemic virus circulating in a community, a new study finds.
Published online June 30 in the journal Pediatrics, the study found specifically that rates of the infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 were higher among infants hospitalized, not for COVID-19 - but instead because they were being evaluated for a potential serious bacterial infection (SBI) - during periods of high COVID-19 circulation in New York City. The study also found rates of COVID-19 positivity in this age group were lower when infection rates in the city were low.
Led by researchers from NYU Langone Health, the study also examined the clinical course of the infection in young infants and found that the most common presentation of COVID-19 was a fever without other symptoms.
"Enhancing our knowledge of how COVID-19 infection affects young infants is important for informing clinical practice, and for planning public health measures such as vaccination distribution," says Vanessa N. Raabe, MD, assistant professor in NYU Langone's Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and one of the study's principal investigators.
New York City was the early epicenter of COVID-19 in the United States, with more than 190,000 reported infections during the peak of the NYC epidemic between March and May in 2020. Three percent of the reported cases were in children under 18 years of age, although these numbers may underestimate the true incidence given the lack of adequate testing. Most children infected with the disease were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. However, cases of severe illness have been reported and some reports suggest young infants may be at higher risk for severe disease than older children.
Young babies are often treated with antibiotics in the hospital when they run a fever until doctors can make sure they don't have a serious bacterial infection, such as meningitis or a bloodstream infection, say the study authors.
"Because fever is a common symptom of COVID-19 in children, clinicians must consider COVID-19 as a potential cause of fever and not solely rely on laboratory or imaging results to guide decision-making on whether or not to test hospitalized infants for COVID-19," says Dr. Raabe.
The current study analyzed data from infants less than 90 days of age admitted for SBI evaluation at NYU Langone Health hospitals and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Hospital between March and December 2020. Among 148 infants, 15 percent tested positive for COVID-19, and two of the 22 infants with COVID-19 required ICU admission, but were discharged safely. Specifically, the team found that only 3 percent of infants tested positive during periods of low community circulation, compared to 31 percent in communities with high infection rates.
The team also found a relatively low incidence (six percent) of infection of the hospitalized infants with other commonly occurring viruses, whether or not they had COVID-19. "This likely reflects community-wide decreases in other respiratory viruses reported in New York during the study period due to enhanced infection control practices, like social distancing and mask wearing, at the height of the pandemic," says Raabe.
The researchers recommend clinicians continue to assess young infants that present with fevers for bacterial infections, regardless of the COVID-19 status, and given the potential severe consequences if not treated.
"It may be intuitive that what is happening in children reflects conditions in the surrounding community, but we find it reassuring that the evidence confirms this relationship," says lead author Michal Paret, MD, a fellow in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at NYU Langone. "The epidemiology of COVID-19 continues to evolve with the emergence of variant viruses and vaccination implementation. In the face of these changes physicians need to continue studying this age group, with the goal of determining ultimately whether a selective or universal testing strategy best serves the health of infants long-term."
INFORMATION:
Additional research is needed on young infants evaluated in a wider range of settings, including the emergency department and outpatient clinics, to truly understand the full impact of COVID-19 in this age group.
Along with Dr. Raabe and Dr. Paret, authors of the study from the Department of Pediatrics were Adam J. Ratner, MD; Gail F. Shust, MD; Rebecca Pellet Madan, MD; Jennifer L. Lighter, MD; Asif Noor, MD; Annum Jaffer, MD; and Karim Lalani, MD.
Media Inquiries
Katie Ullman
Phone: 212-404-3511
Kathryn.ullman@nyulangone.org
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-06-30
CLEVELAND, Ohio (June 30, 2021)--The link between obesity and the risk of endometrial cancer has been well documented. A new study, however, shows that an even lower body mass index (BMI) than previously thought can signal an increased risk in Asian women with postmenopausal bleeding. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
Endometrial cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer in women worldwide and is a leading cause of cancer death. Because there is currently no routine screening for endometrial cancer in asymptomatic women, it is important for healthcare professionals to be aware of added risk factors so that ...
2021-06-30
Our universe is expanding, but our two main ways to measure how fast this expansion is happening have resulted in different answers. For the past decade, astrophysicists have been gradually dividing into two camps: one that believes that the difference is significant, and another that thinks it could be due to errors in measurement.
If it turns out that errors are causing the mismatch, that would confirm our basic model of how the universe works. The other possibility presents a thread that, when pulled, would suggest some fundamental missing new physics is needed to stitch it back together. For several years, each new piece ...
2021-06-30
Oncotarget published "High in vitro and in vivo synergistic activity between mTORC1 and PLK1 inhibition in adenocarcinoma NSCLC" which reported that the aim of this study was therefore to define combination of treatment based on the determination of predictive markers of resistance to the mTORC1 inhibitor RAD001/Everolimus.
When looking at biomarkers of resistance by RT-PCR study, three genes were found to be highly expressed in resistant tumors, i.e., PLK1, CXCR4, and AXL.
The authors have then focused this study on the combination of RAD001 Volasertib, a PLK1 inhibitor, and observed a high antitumor activity ...
2021-06-30
For decades, researchers have been working toward mitigating excess atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. One promising approach captures atmospheric CO2 and then, through CO2 electrolysis, converts it into value-added chemicals and intermediates--like ethanol, ethylene, and other useful chemicals. While significant research has been devoted to improving the rate and selectivity of CO2 electrolysis, reducing the energy consumption of this high-power process has been underexplored.
In ACS Energy Letters, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report a new opportunity to use magnetism to reduce the energy required for CO2 electrolysis by up to 60% in a flow electrolyzer.
In a ...
2021-06-30
PULLMAN, Wash. - Fire can put a tropical songbird's sex life on ice.
Following habitat-destroying wildfires in Australia, researchers found that many male red-backed fairywrens failed to molt into their red-and-black ornamental plumage, making them less attractive to potential mates. They also had lowered circulating testosterone, which has been associated with their showy feathers.
For the study published in the Journal of Avian Biology, the researchers also measured the birds' fat stores and the stress hormone corticosterone but found those remained at normal levels.
"Really, it ended up all coming down to testosterone," said ...
2021-06-30
Male jackdaws don't stick around to console their mate after a traumatic experience, new research shows.
Jackdaws usually mate for life and, when breeding, females stay at the nest with eggs while males gather food.
Rival males sometimes visit the nest and attack the lone female, attempting to mate by force.
In the new study, University of Exeter researchers expected males to console their partner after these incidents by staying close and engaging in social behaviours like preening their partner's feathers.
However, males focussed on their own safety - they still brought food to the nest, but they visited less often and spent less time with the female.
"Humans often console friends or family in distress, but it's unclear whether animals do this in the wild," said Beki ...
2021-06-30
A new analysis of 58 studies and 44305 patients published in Anaesthesia (a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists) shows that, contrary to some previous research, being male and increasing body mass index (BMI) are not associated with increased mortality in COVID-19 in patients admitted into intensive care (ICU).
However, the study, by Dr Bruce Biccard (Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town, South Africa) and colleagues finds that a wide range of factors are associated with death from COVID-19 in ICU.
Patients with COVID-19 in ICU were 40% more likely to die with a history of smoking, 54% more likely with high blood pressure, 41% more likely with diabetes, ...
2021-06-30
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, a scientific breakthrough that transformed Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, from a terminal disease into a manageable condition.
Today, Type 2 diabetes is 24 times more prevalent than Type 1. The rise in rates of obesity and incidence of Type 2 diabetes are related and require new approaches, according to University of Arizona researchers, who believe the liver may hold the key to innovative new treatments.
"All current therapeutics for ...
2021-06-30
Los Angeles, Calif. - The AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), the largest global HIV research network, today announced that findings from a sub-study of REPRIEVE (A5332/A5332s, an international clinical trial studying heart disease prevention in people living with HIV) have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open (JAMA Network Open). The study found that approximately half of study participants, who were considered by traditional measures to be at low-to-moderate risk of future heart disease, had atherosclerotic plaque in their coronary arteries.
While it is well-known that people living with HIV are at ...
2021-06-29
(OTTAWA, ON) The University of Ottawa, the University of Montreal and the Assembly of First Nations are pleased to announce the newly published First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES) in the Canadian Journal of Public Health. Mandated by First Nations leadership across Canada through Assembly of First Nations Resolution 30 / 2007 and realized through a unique collaboration with researchers and communities, the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study is the first national study of its kind. It was led by principal investigators Dr. Laurie Chan, a professor ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Prevalence of COVID-19 among hospitalized infants varies with levels of community transmission
