January 11 (UPI) – The COVID-19 hospitalization rate for children in the United States rose 800% over the course of six months between mid-May and mid-November last year, according to a study published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics. .
The analysis of data from 22 U.S. states revealed that trends in hospitalization rates for children infected with the new coronavirus nationwide typically reflect those of older adults, the researchers said.
Although children are much less likely to be hospitalized compared to all adults, the trends are “worrying” as much of the focus on the potential for serious COVID-19 diseases falls on the risks to the elderly, they say. .
“While children have a very low risk of serious diseases due to COVID-19, there is a misperception that there is no risk,” co-author Pinar Karaca-Mandic told UPI.
‘This study shows that [the virus] has the potential to cause serious illness in children, ”says Karaca-Mandic, Professor of Health Risk Management at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.
Although children, teens, and young adults accounted for nearly one-fifth of the 22.4 million COVID-19 cases nationwide, these age groups accounted for a fraction of all hospitalizations and deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Control and prevention.
Less than 1% of all virus-related hospitalizations and deaths across the country involve people aged 24 and under, the agency estimates.
More than 129,000 people in the United States are hospitalized with the virus and more than 374,000 have died since the onset of the pandemic, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
For this study, between May 15 and November 15, Karaca-Mandic and her colleagues analyzed data on more than 300,000 COVID-19-related hospitalizations in 22 states.
Just over 5,300 of these hospitalizations involved children, the researchers said.
Although relatively few of those with serious illnesses due to the virus remain accountable, by November 15, they were hospitalized at 17.2 per 100,000 children in the general population, up from two per 100,000 six months earlier, according to the researchers.
In mid-November, South Dakota and Arizona had the highest number of children’s hospitals due to COVID-19 with 33.7 per 100,000 children in the general population and 32.8 per 100,000, the researchers said.
“Our study was not designed to analyze whether children fueled the spread of COVID-19,” Karaca-Mandic said.
“However, in 19 of the 21 states where we were able to make a comparison, the growth rate in the cumulative hospitalization rate was higher than the corresponding growth rate in adults,” she said.