Background:SARS-CoV-2 variant evolution and increasing immunity altered the impact of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection. Public health decision-making relies on accurate and timely reporting of... Show moreBackground:SARS-CoV-2 variant evolution and increasing immunity altered the impact of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection. Public health decision-making relies on accurate and timely reporting of clinical data.Methods:This international hospital-based multicenter, prospective cohort study with real-time reporting was active from March 2020 to December 2022. We evaluated longitudinal incident rates and risk factors for disease severity.Results:We included 564 hospitalized children with acute COVID-19 (n = 375) or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (n = 189) from the Netherlands, Curacao and Surinam. In COVID-19, 134/375 patients (36%) needed supplemental oxygen therapy and 35 (9.3%) required intensive care treatment. Age above 12 years and preexisting pulmonary conditions were predictors for severe COVID-19. During omicron, hospitalized children had milder disease. During population immunity, the incidence rate of pediatric COVID-19 infection declined for older children but was stable for children below 1 year. The incidence rate of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children was highest during the delta wave and has decreased rapidly since omicron emerged. Real-time reporting of our data impacted national pediatric SARS-CoV-2 vaccination- and booster-policies.Conclusions:Our data supports the notion that similar to adults, prior immunity protects against severe sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infections in children. Real-time reporting of accurate and high-quality data is feasible and impacts clinical and public health decision-making. The reporting framework of our consortium is readily accessible for future SARS-CoV-2 waves and other emerging infections. Show less
Buonsenso, D.; Perramon, A.; Catala, M.; Torres, J.P.; Camacho-Moreno, G.; Rojas-Solano, M.; ... ; COPEDI-CAT Res Grp 2022
Background: SARS-CoV-2 variations as well as immune protection after previous infections and/or vaccination may have altered the incidence of multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)... Show moreBackground: SARS-CoV-2 variations as well as immune protection after previous infections and/or vaccination may have altered the incidence of multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). We aimed to report an international time-series analysis of the incidence of MIS-C to determine if there was a shift in the regions or countries included into the study. Methods: This is a multicenter, international, cross-sectional study. We collected the MIS-C incidence from the participant regions and countries for the period July 2020 to November 2021. We assessed the ratio between MIS-C cases and COVID-19 pediatric cases in children <18 years diagnosed 4 weeks earlier (average time for the temporal association observed in this disease) for the study period. We performed a binomial regression analysis for 8 participating sites [Bogota (Colombia), Chile, Costa Rica, Lazio (Italy), Mexico DF, Panama, The Netherlands and Catalonia (Spain)]. Results: We included 904 cases of MIS-C, among a reference population of 17,906,432 children. We estimated a global significant decrease trend ratio in MIS-C cases/COVID-19 diagnosed cases in the previous month (P < 0.001). When analyzing separately each of the sites, Chile and The Netherlands maintained a significant decrease trend (P < 0.001), but this ratio was not statistically significant for the rest of sites. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first international study describing a global reduction in the trend of the MIS-C incidence during the pandemic. COVID-19 vaccination and other factors possibly linked to the virus itself and/or community transmission may have played a role in preventing new MIS-C cases. Show less
Background: Increased nasopharyngeal carriage of pathogenic bacteria is found in low socioeconomic status (SES) settings. How SES affects local immune responses, important for controlling... Show moreBackground: Increased nasopharyngeal carriage of pathogenic bacteria is found in low socioeconomic status (SES) settings. How SES affects local immune responses, important for controlling colonization, is currently unknown. Objective: Examining bacterial colonization and cytokine response in the nasal mucosa of children from high and low SES. Methods: Nasosorption samples were collected in October 2019 from 48 high SES and 50 low SES schoolchildren, in a cross-sectional study in Makassar, Indonesia. Twenty-five cytokines were measured in nasal fluid. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed to determine carriage and density of Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Staphylococcus aureus. Data were analyzed using multivariate regression. Results: H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae densities were increased in low SES settings compared to the high SES settings (P = 0.006, P = 0.026), with 6 and 67 times higher median densities, respectively. Densities of H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae were positively associated with levels of IL-1beta and IL-6. After correcting for bacterial density, IL-6 levels were higher in colonized children from high SES than low SES for H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae (both P = 0.039). Conclusion: Increased densities of H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae were observed in low SES children, whereas IL-6 levels associated with colonization were reduced in these children, indicating that immune responses to bacterial colonization were altered by SES. Show less
Hoeven, A. van der; Beek, M.T. van der; Lopriore, E.; Steggerda, S.J.; Bekker, V. 2022
Background: In many infants, treatment is started for suspicion of early onset sepsis (EOS), of whom the majority do not have an infection. Early prediction of the absence of a culture-proven... Show moreBackground: In many infants, treatment is started for suspicion of early onset sepsis (EOS), of whom the majority do not have an infection. Early prediction of the absence of a culture-proven sepsis (CPS) would significantly reduce the time of antibiotic treatment and hospitalization. Our objective was to analyze 3 criteria in infants with CPS: positive blood culture (BC) at 24 hours after the onset of suspicion of EOS (OSEOS), C-reactive protein (CRP) >= 10 mg/L and clinical signs of infection, so we can consequently consider to stop antibiotic treatment in infants without these criteria.Methods: We included all infants with suspicion of EOS from 2007 until 2020. The proportion was calculated of (1) infants with CPS with, at 24 hours, a positive BC and/or CRP >= 10 mg/L and/or clinical signs of infection and (2) infants without CPS with CRP <10 mg/L between 12 and 24 hours after OSEOS.Results: The BC showed growth of a pathogenic microorganism in 50 of 4120 included infants (1.2%). Time to positivity was >= 24 hours in 8 (16%) infants, of whom 7 infants had a raised CRP and/or clinical symptoms of infection within 24 hours. In 1095 (74%) of infants without CPS in whom CRP was measured between 12 and 24 hours after OSEOS, CRP was <10 mg/L.Conclusion: A combination of BC, CRP, and clinical signs of infection can diagnose 98% (49/50) of infants with CPS 24 hours after OSEOS. Based on normal CRP and the absence of a positive BC, the decision to stop antibiotics could have been brought forward to 24 hours in 74% of infants. Show less
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a rare, potentially life-threatening postinfectious complication in children after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)... Show moreMultisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a rare, potentially life-threatening postinfectious complication in children after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. It is currently unknown if multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) can recur upon reinfection with SARS-CoV-2. Here, we report on a former MIS-C patient who was reinfected with SARS-CoV-2 without recurrence of MIS-C. Show less
