COVID pediatric hospitalizations soar – Axios

More children are landing in hospital due to COVID and it is not yet clear whether this is because the Delta variant causes more serious illness in children.

Why is this important: Hospitals are worried about the growing impact of COVID on children as schools across the country prepare to return for in-person instruction – many without the protection of immunizations or mask warrants.

Driving the news: The latest figures from the American Academy of Pediatrics show there have been nearly 94,000 cases of COVID in children over the past week, or about 15% of the total number of weekly cases. Children made up between 1.5% and 3.5% of total hospitalizations, they said.

• But while serious illnesses in children are still relatively rare compared to adults, pediatric hospitalizations in some parts of the country have reached worrying levels.
• There is an “epidemic” of very young COVID patients at New Orleans Children’s Hospital, Chief Medical Officer Mark Kline told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America. Half of the children hospitalized are under two, he said.

Infectious disease physicians agree on high level of transmission Delta virus, especially in areas of the country with low vaccination rates, is largely responsible for the rise.

• “The states with the lowest vaccination rates are the states where we have epidemics and the states where we have people overloading the hospital system. There is a clear and direct correlation. It is not a picture. puzzling, “Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, chief of illnesses at DC’s National Children’s Hospital, told Axios.

Reality check: But they fear that the level of pediatric hospitalizations is also due to the fact that the Delta variant is more virulent in children than the previous variants.

• “I think we are seeing more serious illnesses and I think part of this is because the children we see don’t have underlying health issues,” Kenneth Alexander, chief of staff, told Axios. the infectious disease division for Nemours Children’s in Orlando.
• The hospital has eight or nine children hospitalized for COVID, including two in intensive care. Last summer, the hospital might have had one or two.
• “Everyone is a little nervous that the Delta variant may, in fact, be, in some way, more dangerous in children,” Richard Malley, pediatric infectious disease specialist, told The New York Times. at Boston Children’s Hospital.
• But there is still debate on the matter. DeBiasi said the data did not show an increase in the rates of serious illness among children in Washington. . We haven’t seen a change even though the type or variant of the virus has changed, ”DeBiasi said.

Zoom out: Children of different ages are often affected differently by COVID, and in particular the Delta variant.

• Teens and children under a year old seem more likely to be hospitalized, doctors said.
• Obese children, as well as Hispanic or black children seem to be at higher risk, but “we have had very sick children who don’t have risk factors,” Alexander said.
• Meanwhile, the rare disease associated with COVID-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) The maximum median age of children most commonly affected is around nine years old, DeBiasi said. The majority of these cases typically appeared within four to six weeks after each of the big waves of COVID, DeBiasi said.

Experts expect further outbreaks in children and adults within two weeks of returning to school, especially in states like Florida where mask warrants have been banned.

• “As we flirt with the idea of ​​not wearing masks, we are not just putting children at risk, we are putting their parents and grandparents in serious danger,” Alexander said.

At the end of the line : Experts say the worrying increase makes the case for both masks and vaccinations for children in the Delta era.

• “We now have so much information about the millions and millions of people who have been vaccinated showing the effectiveness of preventing serious illness,” DeBiasi said. “Even though the virus has changed and the variants have changed, that was a consistent conclusion.”