Características clínicas y epidemiológicas de niños y adolescentes con enfermedad por coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) en Tacna, 2020

Abstract

Objective: Describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of children and adolescents with coronavirus disease in Tacna.
Material and methods: Observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study. All children and adolescents under 20 years of age with coronavirus infection in the Tacna Region, with a positive rapid and/or molecular test, were included during the period from May 1 to December 31, 2020. The data comes from the database from data from the Epidemiology Office of the Tacna Health Region. Descriptive analysis was performed using absolute and relative frequencies of categorical variables, using Microsoft Excel software.
Results: In this period, 23,124 cases of positive COVID-19 were reported in the Tacna region, of which 2,377 were in children under 20 years of age, with an incidence of 10,3 %, of which 61,7 % were in adolescents of 10 years of age at 19 years old, mainly female (53,2 %); The vast majority of cases were asymptomatic (5 %), of those who presented some symptoms (44,6%), the following were common: general malaise (53,26 %), cough (31,3 %), sore throat (26,7 %), headache (22,7 %), nasal congestion (18,3%) and fever (14,9 %). The disease was acquired mainly in the family environment (23,01 %), the majority was identified by serological testing (97,6 %) in Ministry of Health establishments (72,49 %). Very few required hospitalization (2,57 %) or ICU (0,04 %). There was low mortality (0,13 %).
Conclusions: The incidence of COVID-19 in children and adolescents in Tacna in 2020 was low, the majority being asymptomatic, very few required hospitalization or ICU and mortality was low.