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WASHINGTON, September 5 – Pediatric hospitalizations for Covid in the United States have increased since Delta became predominant, but a new study that offers a first glimpse of relevant data suggests fears that the variant will cause more serious illness are not founded.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document also found that between June 20 and July 31, 2021, unvaccinated teens were more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who were vaccinated.
The health agency analyzed hospital records for an area covering approximately 10% of the U.S. population, between March 1, 2020 and August 14, 2021.
This covered the period before the emergence of Delta, the most contagious strain to date, and after it became dominant, starting on June 20.
Weekly hospitalizations of children aged 0 to 17 were at their lowest between June 12 and July 3, at 0.3 per 100,000, before dropping to 1.4 per 100,000 in the week ending. ending August 14, a multiplication by 4.7.
Pediatric hospitalizations peaked at an all-time high of 1.5 per 100,000 in the week to Jan. 9, when the United States experienced its winter wave driven by the Alpha variant.
According to previous research, children aged 12 to 17 and 0 to 4 are at a higher risk of hospitalization for Covid than those aged 5 to 11.
After reviewing 3,116 hospital records from the pre-Delta period and comparing them to 164 records during the Delta period, the percentage of children with severe indicators turned out not to be much different.
More specifically, the percentage of hospitalized patients admitted to intensive care was 26.5 before the delta and 23.2 after; the percentage placed on the fans was 6.1 before Delta and 9.8 after; and the percentage of deaths was 0.7 before Delta and 1.8 after.
These differences did not reach the level of statistical significance.
With this finding comes an important caveat that, with the number of hospitalizations in the post-Delta period being low, more data will need to be collected for scientists to gain more confidence in the conclusion.
The study also highlighted the vaccine’s effectiveness against pediatric hospitalization of Covid during Delta.
Between June 20 and July 31, among 68 adolescents hospitalized with Covid-19 whose vaccination status was known, 59 were not vaccinated, five were partially vaccinated and four were fully vaccinated.
This meant that the unvaccinated were 10.1 times more likely to be hospitalized than the vaccinated.
Children protected by community vaccinations
A second CDC study looked at cases of Covid in children, hospitalizations and emergency room visits from June to August 2021, and compared them to community vaccination levels at the time.
Pediatric emergency room visits (ages 0-17) and Covid-related hospitalizations were 3.4 times higher and 3.7 times higher, respectively, in states that were in the bottom quartile of total vaccinated per capita, compared to states in the top quartile.
The take-home message is that, while clinical trials of vaccines in under 12s and subsequent approvals are awaited, high rates of vaccination in the community are choking the transmission of Covid and protecting children. – AFP
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