Hospitalizations of children ill with COVID-19 in the United States have reached a high since the start of the pandemic, as the country faces an impressive outbreak of cases from the Omicron variant.
Experts warn about the importance of vaccinating children, and point the finger in the first place to the very high contagiousness of this variant as responsible for the increase in pediatric hospitalizations.
The finding: record increase in hospitalizations
In one week, at the very end of December, 378 new hospitalizations were recorded on average in the country among those under 18, an increase of 66% compared to the previous week, according to figures from the Centers for Prevention and disease control (CDC).
This is a record, exceeding the previous peak observed in September, during the wave linked to Delta. The only other age group for which hospitalizations have reached a new record is 18-29.
However, the proportion of severe cases among minors remains much lower than for other age groups.
Regarding the number of cases, around 200,000 children were reported sick with COVID-19 the week ending December 23, according to figures from the American Academy of Pediatrics a 50% increase over the number of weekly cases recorded in Beginning of the month.
“We are seeing record numbers of cases of children diagnosed positive for COVID-19 during this wave of Omicron,” Jim Versalovic of the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, the largest in the country, confirmed to AFP. . Some 50 children are currently hospitalized there, a number having more than quadrupled since last week, he said.
Also in New York, health officials said this week to monitor “closely an upward trend in pediatric hospital admissions.”
The reasons: more cases and less vaccinated children
The explanation is, at least in part, mechanically linked to the general surge of the epidemic in the country.
“More children are infected with this highly transmissible virus, and with it, there will naturally be more hospitalizations of children,” D said on Wednesday during a press briefing.r Anthony Fauci, White House adviser on the health crisis.
Mr. Fauci also warned that it was necessary to differentiate children in the hospital “with” COVID-19, from those “because” of COVID-19. In other words, especially during the winter, some may go to the hospital because of other viruses in circulation, and be diagnosed positive for Covid-19 in passing.
Another important factor is the much lower vaccination rates among younger people. By the end of December, less than 15% of 5-11 year olds and just over 50% of 12-17 year olds were fully vaccinated.
However, vaccines are very effective in protecting severe cases of the disease.
“Our hospitalized adolescents are almost exclusively unvaccinated,” said Jim Versalovic. The same applies to children aged 5 to 11, who have only been eligible since the beginning of November, ie only two months. Children under 5 are not eligible at all for the moment.
Is Omicron more serious than Delta in children?
As with the Delta variant wave, the rise in pediatric hospitalizations has raised fears that a transformation of the virus has made it capable of triggering more severe cases of the disease in them than previous variants.
But “from what we can see today, Omicron is not causing more severe infections,” said Jim Versalovic, going even further: “Looks like we are dealing with a greater proportion of moderate cases. “.
This is currently the dominant hypothesis for adults as well, but more hindsight will be needed to state it with certainty.
“The final conclusion on the level of severity (of Omicron) in children remains to be determined,” said Anthony Fauci.
In addition, “even if a small percentage of children develop a severe case, a small percentage of a large number gives a large number,” pediatrician Henry Bernstein told AFP. And it is “a real concern”, he added.
Moderate cases of the disease can also lead to cases of long-term Covid, the consequences of which are still unclear, or to severe cases of pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), which does not start until several weeks after the start of the disease. ‘infection.
We will therefore have to wait until at least January to see if Omicron, like Delta, also causes these long-term effects, and in what proportion.