COVID-19 -- Age-Indifferent

"We have always expected that, if community rates went up, it would translate into the pediatric world. We talk a lot about COVID being mild in children. But, with increasing rates, we're seeing increasing hospitalizations in infants."

"There is a good transfer of antibodies to the newborn [when their mothers are vaccinated while pregnant]. We are extrapolating it will protect the baby for at least the first few months of life."

"I can understand the hesitancy, but I would like to assure [pregnant women] that it has been shown to be very safe."

"There is no doubt in our minds that this is beneficial. It's a vaccine-preventable illness. This is one thing that moms can do to protect their newborns."

Dr. Anne Pham-Huy, paediatric infections expert, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)

"All available COVID-19 vaccines approved in Canada can be used during pregnancy and breastfeeding, but the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada [SOGC] recommends following provincial and territorial guidelines on type of vaccine to prioritize for pregnant and breast-feeding individuals."

Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada statement

American doctors are now treating over 500 kids a day for COVID-19. In Canada, admissions are also rising and pediatric hospitals are starting to see more infants with the virus.   CBC

 

The admission of four babies under a year of age to Ottawa's Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario with COVID-19 infections in the past three weeks has raised alarms in the paedriatric medical community. That another two infants were admitted to the McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton aroused a desperate effort to persuade pregnant women to be vaccinated. Eight infants by comparison had been admitted to hospital with COVID during the entire two-year period of the pandemic.

Infant hospitalizations for COVID-19 infection prior to mid-December represented a rare event. A program at CHEO tracks vaccination status of mothers of infants admitted to the hospital. CHEO, along with the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, McMaster Children's Hospital and Kingston Health Sciences Centre formed a purposeful effort to urge pregnant women to be vaccinated -- not only for their babies' well-being but for their own protection against the pathogen stalking the world community.

 

A joint statement from the hospital group explained that "With the rise of Omicron, hospitals are starting to see a disturbing, potential new trend -- admissions of infants with COVID-19." Because infants have immature immune systems that make it difficult for them to combat infections, they are particularly at risk. Pregnant women who have been vaccinated mount excellent immune responses and that capacity is passed on to their newborns.

Absent a mother's vaccinated state, an infant has no protection of maternal antibodies that would be transferred during the third trimester of pregnancy, a reality that has been studied with other infectious diseases, like flu and whooping cough. CHEO's Better Outcomes Registry and Network (BORN) Ontario collects, interprets and shares data, and has been monitoring the impact of COVID in the provincial pregnant population. Research indicates no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines taken during pregnancy can be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Pregnant women infected with COVID-19 stand an increased risk of admission to hospital ending up needing critical care and invasive ventilation, in  comparison to their age-matched, non-pregnant peers. Almost 40,000 women received at least one dose of  COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy between December 14, 2020 and June 30, 2021. 

Roughly seven to 11 percent of pregnant women are estimated to require hospitalization for COVID-related illness, while between one and four percent of pregnant women will require admission to intensive care units according to international and Canadian data. Being over 35 years of age, asthma, obesity, pre-existing diabetes, pre-existing hypertension and heart disease are factors associated with risk of severe illness.

An increased risk of preterm birth associated with COVID-19 has been identified in both Canadian and U.S. studies. Vaccine coverage in pregnant women has remained lower than within the general population, despite pregnant women having been prioritized for vaccinations, reports BORN Ontario.  

"The biggest difference is that Omicron is much more respiratory, so kids are presenting with cold-like symptoms, where before it was fever and maybe some gastrointestinal in the earlier waves."

"Now we're seeing kids, for example, with asthma. Their asthma is getting worse and bringing them into hospital."   

"We're way higher than we were previously. Part of that is because there are so many cases in the community that kids are coming in — some with COVID, some for other reasons — and we're screening COVID on admission."

"In previous waves, babies were essentially unaffected by COVID. But now we're seeing newborns. So in that first 30 days of life, significant disease."

Dr. Fatima Kakkar, paedriatic infectious diseases, specialist, Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal 

Multiple hospitals recently began seeing an uptick in young patients infected with the coronavirus, CBC News has learned, including some of the country's largest pediatric facilities in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.  (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

According to figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by the week ending January first, an average of over 570 children presenting with COVID were admitted to U.S. hospitals across the nation, daily. 

At the largest pediatric health care facility in the United States -- Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, over 700 children were treated in a single 24-hour period with COVID. The hospital reports an over four-fold increase in child hospitalization from COVID-19 just in the past two weeks, in lock-step with the emergence of the Omicron variant sweeping the world community.   

"As you're seeing a more transmissible variant plow through our communities, you are seeing more children get infected; primarily those who are unvaccinated."    

"Unfortunately, a subset of them are ending up in the hospital requiring, sometimes, ICU level care. So that certainly is alarming."    

Dr. Syra Madad, senior director, special pathogens, New York City Health System