Clinical Outcome of Children with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Infection at 2 to 4 Months Follow-up

Introduction: Hospital Kepala Batas (HKB), a district hospital in Penang state, started as a hybrid COVID-19 hospital since Mid-October 2020 and became full COVID-19 hospital since February 2021 when our country was hit by the 3rd wave of COVID-19 infection. Nevertheless, data for clinical outcomes of children with COVID-19 infection are limited. The objective of this research was to study the clinical presentations and effect of COVID -19 infection on paediatric patients at 2 to 4 months follow-up. Methodology: 1. This is an observational study involving retrospective data collection. 2. Samples were identified through monthly census of paediatric COVID-19 admissions to HKB from November 2020 to March 2021 (5 months duration), where all patients were below 12 years old with COVID-19 infection were included. Patients who were not contactable during follow-up were excluded from this study. 3. COVID-19 infection was defined by positive COVID-19 RT-PCR from a combined nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab. 4. The case notes were traced from the hospital record office. Information listed in the data collection sheet was collected, which includes patient demographic data, transmission risk factors, co-morbidities and Clinical Staging Category of COVID-19 infection. 5. Patients were followed up via phone calls at 2 to 4 months of discharge by two paediatric medical officers based on standardized clerking sheets using hospital phones. 6. The well being of the patients were reported based on parents’ perception of the symptoms, duration of illness and whether treatment was needed by visiting a hospital or health care clinic. For school and child care center attendance, it was reported as going or not to school and child care center after discharge from ward. Results: Ninety-seven paediatric patients aged from 3 months to 144 months old were included. 7 cases were excluded. Ninety-eight percent of them were infected via closed contact with family members. There were 47% category 1, 43% category 2 and 10% category 3. None of them were category 4 or 5. All symptoms resolved upon discharge. During phone call follow-up, 14 (16%) patients had recurrent symptoms, where 1 patient had 2 episodes of illness and 13 patients had 1 episode of illness. The symptoms were cough (12), fever (9), coryza (8), vomiting (2), diarrhoea (1), sorethroat (1) and chest discomfort (1), with the average of 4.7 days for each illness. Thirteen patients visited healthcare centre. None of them required admission. From our sample, 72 patients attended school or child care centre, where attendance was not affected in 71 (98.6%) patients. Conclusion: Our findings were similar to the data published in Italy1,2 and Australia3. Whereby, there was no chronic symptom reported by parents post COVID-19 infection in children during 2 to 4 months follow-up. Majority of children continue schooling and attendance to child care centre.This poster was submitted to the 14th National Conference for Clinical Research (NCCR) on August 18-20 2021. https://nccrconference.com.my