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The association of viral load and disease severity in children with COVID‐19
Author(s) -
Aykac Kubra,
Cura Yayla Burcu Ceylan,
Ozsurekci Yasemin,
Evren Kubra,
Oygar Pembe Derin,
Gurlevik Sibel Lacinel,
Coskun Tugce,
Tasci Onur,
Demirel Kaya Filiz,
Fidanci Ilknur,
Tasar Medine Aysin,
Alp Alpaslan,
Cengiz Ali Bulent,
Karahan Sevilay,
Ceyhan Mehmet
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.26853
Subject(s) - medicine , asymptomatic , covid-19 , disease , viral load , severity of illness , transmission (telecommunications) , pediatrics , coronavirus , medical record , infectious disease (medical specialty) , immunology , virus , electrical engineering , engineering
It is still not fully understood how to predict the future prognosis of patients at the diagnosis coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) due to the wide clinical range of the disease. We aimed to evaluate whether severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) viral load could predict the clinical course of pediatric patients. This study was conducted retrospectively with medical records of pediatric patients who were tested for SARS‐CoV2 between April 12 and October 25, 2020 in the University of Health Sciences, Ankara Educating and Training Hospital and Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine. We evaluated 518 pediatric patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 and classified according to severity as asymptomatic (16.2%), mild (59.6%), moderate (20.2%), and critical/severe (3.9%) cases. We analyzed patients in four groups in terms of ages: <4, 5‐9, 10–14, and 15–17 years. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of ∆ C t value among age groups, different gender and the existence of underlying diseases in each disease course. The ∆ C t values were relatively lower in the first 2 days of symptoms than after days in all groups. Our study has indicated that children with COVID‐19 have similar amount of viral load in all disease courses irrespective of the age and underlying disease. It should be taken into account that, regardless of the severity of the disease, pediatric patients may have a role in the transmission chain.