Imperial College London
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Dr Natsuko Imai

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Honorary Senior Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

n.imai Website

 
 
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Location

 

G26Medical SchoolSt Mary's Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Gaythorpe:2021:10.1038/s41598-021-92500-9,
author = {Gaythorpe, K and Bhatia, S and Mangal, T and Unwin, H and Imai, N and Cuomo-Dannenburg, G and Walters, C and Jauneikaite, E and Bayley, H and Kont, M and Mousa, A and Whittles, L and Riley, S and Ferguson, N},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-92500-9},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
pages = {1--14},
title = {Children’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review of early surveillance data on susceptibility, severity, and transmissibility},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92500-9},
volume = {11},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: SARS-CoV-2 infections have been reported in all age groups including infants, children, and adolescents. However, the role of children in the COVID-19 pandemic is still uncertain. This systematic review of early studies synthesises evidence on the susceptibility of children to SARS-CoV-2 infection, the severity and clinical outcomes in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 by children in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods and findings: A systematic literature review was conducted in PubMed. Reviewers extracted data from relevant, peer-reviewed studies published up to July 4th 2020 during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak using a standardised form and assessed quality using the NIH Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. For studies included in the meta-analysis, we used a random effects model to calculate pooled estimates of the proportion of children considered asymptomatic or in a severe or critical state.  We identified 2,775 potential studies of which 128 studies met our inclusion criteria; data were extracted from 99, which were then quality assessed. Finally, 29 studies were considered for the meta-analysis that included information of symptoms and/or severity, these were further assessed based on patient recruitment. Our pooled estimate of the proportion of test positive children who were asymptomatic was 21.1% (95% CI: 14.0 - 28.1%), based on 13 included studies, and the proportion of children with severe or critical symptoms was 3.8% (95% CI: 1.5 - 6.0%), based on 14 included studies. We did not identify any studies designed to assess transmissibility in children and found that susceptibility to infection in children was highly variable across studies.Conclusions: Children’s susceptibility to infection and onward transmissibility relative to adults is still unclear and varied widely between studies. However, it is evident that most children e
AU  - Gaythorpe,K
AU  - Bhatia,S
AU  - Mangal,T
AU  - Unwin,H
AU  - Imai,N
AU  - Cuomo-Dannenburg,G
AU  - Walters,C
AU  - Jauneikaite,E
AU  - Bayley,H
AU  - Kont,M
AU  - Mousa,A
AU  - Whittles,L
AU  - Riley,S
AU  - Ferguson,N
DO  - 10.1038/s41598-021-92500-9
EP  - 14
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 2045-2322
SP  - 1
TI  - Children’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review of early surveillance data on susceptibility, severity, and transmissibility
T2  - Scientific Reports
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92500-9
UR  - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92500-9
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/89429
VL  - 11
ER  -
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