New research from the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine suggests that children under the age of 5 who are infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant are at less risk of serious health problems than children infected with the Delta variant.
The study, published Friday in JAMA Pediatrics, is the first large-scale research effort to compare the health outcomes of a coronavirus infection from Omicron to Delta in children 4 and younger; the age group that cannot yet be vaccinated.
The findings show that the Omicron variant is 6-8 times more contagious than the Delta variant. Severe clinical outcomes ranged from a 16% lower risk of emergency room visits to an 85% lower risk of mechanical ventilation. And about 1.8% of Omicron-infected children were hospitalized, compared to 3.3% with Delta.
The Case Western Reserve-led team analyzed the electronic health records of more than 651,640 children in the United States who had medical meetings with health organizations between 9/21/2022, including more than 22,772 children infected with Omicron in late December and late December. . January – Up to more than 66,000 children infected when Delta was rife in the fall. The study also compared data from more than 10,000 children just before the detection of Omicron in the US, but when Delta was still predominant.
Children under 5 are not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines and have a low rate of previous SARS-CoV-2 infections, which also limits their pre-existing immunity.
The team examined clinical health outcomes for pediatric patients over a 14-day period after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among the factors they rated were: emergency room visits, hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and use of mechanical ventilation.
Further demographic data analysis found that children infected with Omicron were younger on average — 1.5 years versus 1.7 years — and had fewer co-morbidities.
The main conclusion of our study was that many more children were infected with Omicron compared to Delta, but the children who are infected are not as severely affected as children who were infected with the Delta variant. But because so many more children are infected, our hospitals were hit by an influx of young children during the winter months.”
Pamela Davis, the Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin Research Professor, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine
“We saw hospital admissions within this age group skyrocket in January this year because Omicron’s infection rate is about 10 to 15 times that of the Delta variant,” said Rong Xu, professor of biomedical informatics and director of the Center for Neuroscience. AI in Drug Discovery at the School of Medicine. “Omicron is less severe than Delta, but the reduction in severity range in clinical outcomes is only 16 to 85%. In addition, since so many unvaccinated children were infected, the long-term effects of COVID-19 infections on the brain, heart, immune system and other organs of children remains unknown and concerning.”
The CDC recommends that individuals ages 5 and older receive a COVID-19 vaccine and fully vaccinated individuals ages 12 and older receive a booster shot. Under updated guidelines from the CDC, Americans are no longer required to mask indoors in counties with a low or medium “Covid-19 Community Level.”
Source:
Case Western Reserve University
Reference magazine:
Wang, L., et al. (2022) Incidence rates and clinical outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection with the Omicron and Delta variants in children under 5 years of age in the US. JAMA Pediatrics. doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.0945.
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