ArticlePLoS medicine2022
COVID-19 deaths in children and young people in England, March 2020 to December 2021: An active prospective national surveillance study.
Article in PLoS medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- COVID-19 and Influenza Deaths in Australian Children 2018-2023: A National Case Analysis.Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society · 2025Article
- Epidemic profile of COVID-19 child deaths in Sri Lanka: a retrospective nationwide analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Deaths in children in England from SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first 2 years of the pandemic: a cohort study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Six clinical phenotypes with prognostic implications were identified by unsupervised machine learning in children and adolescents with SARS-CoV-2 infection: results from a German nationwide registry.Respiratory research · 2024Article
- Fatal SARS-CoV-2 Infection among Children, Japan, January-September 2022Emerging infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Vaccination against COVID-19 - risks and benefits in children.European journal of pediatrics · 2024Review
- Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis.Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2024Article
- COVID-19 Vaccination Status Among Korean Pediatric Population With Comorbidities.Journal of Korean medical science · 2023Article
- Pediatric Hospitalizations and ICU Admissions Due to COVID-19 and Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally Associated With SARS-CoV-2 in England.JAMA pediatrics · 2023Article
- Observational
- Hospital admissions linked to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents: cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained infections in England.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Article
- Considerations for vaccinating children against COVID-19.BMJ paediatrics open · 2023Review
- Causes of Death in Neonates, Infants, Children, and Adolescents at the University Children's Clinical Hospital of Białystok Between 2018 and 2021.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2023Observational
- Significantly lower infection fatality rates associated with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) infection in children and young people: Active, prospective national surveillance, January-March 2022, England.The Journal of infection · 2023Article
- Policies on children and schools during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Western Europe.Frontiers in public health · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCoronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) deaths are rare in children and young people (CYP). The high rates of asymptomatic and mild infections complicate assessment of cause of death in CYP. We assessed the cause of death in all CYP with a positive Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) test since the start of the pandemic in England. METHODS AND
findingsCYP aged <20 years who died within 100 days of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between 01 March 2020 and 31 December 2021 in England were followed up in detail, using national databases, surveillance questionnaires, post-mortem reports, and clinician interviews. There were 185 deaths during the 22-month follow-up and 81 (43.8%) were due to COVID-19. Compared to non-COVID-19 deaths in CYP with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, death due to COVID-19 was independently associated with older age (aOR 1.06 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01 to 1.11, p = 0.02) and underlying comorbidities (aOR 2.52 95% CI 1.27 to 5.01, p = 0.008), after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity group, and underlying conditions, with a shorter interval between SARS-CoV-2 testing and death. Half the COVID-19 deaths (41/81, 50.6%) occurred within 7 days of confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection and 91% (74/81) within 30 days. Of the COVID-19 deaths, 61 (75.3%) had an underlying condition, especially severe neurodisability (n = 27) and immunocompromising conditions (n = 12). Over the 22-month surveillance period, SARS-CoV-2 was responsible for 1.2% (81/6,790) of all deaths in CYP aged <20 years, with an infection fatality rate of 0.70/100,000 SARS-CoV-2 infections in this age group estimated through real-time, nowcasting modelling, and a mortality rate of 0.61/100,000. Limitations include possible under-ascertainment of deaths in CYP who were not tested for SARS-CoV-2 and lack of direct access to clinical data for hospitalised CYP.
conclusionsCOVID-19 deaths remain extremely rare in CYP, with most fatalities occurring within 30 days of infection and in children with specific underlying conditions.
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