Prevalence of COVID-19 among children of Ukraine during the pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/2415-8127.2025.71.10Keywords:
children, morbidity, age structure, Covid-19Abstract
Introduction. Since the World Health Organization announced the coronavirus infection (Covid-19) pandemic, the attention of clinicians and researchers has been focused on the features of its course, including in children. For the most part, the course of Covid-19 in children was not severe, but the number of patients during the pandemic was very different, which gave rise to a number of questions.Aim: to establish the age structure of children with Covid-19 in Ukraine and to monitor the possible consequences.Methods. An analytical search for documents on the study of the problem of Covid-19 in children was conducted in the Scopus scientometric database. The incidence, age structure, and mortality rates among children were studied according to the official reporting of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for the period 2021–2023.Results and Discussion. According to the data contained in the Scopus scientometric database, 46,705 documents on the course of Covid-19 in children were published for the period 2018–2024. During the period 02.2021–06.2023, 35,561,822 patients were registered in Ukraine, including 859,991 patients in Ternopil region. In the general population, the share of children among patients was not significant (1.2%). The largest number of sick children was observed in 2021 (n=192,443) and in 2022 (n=186,402). The age structure of sick children is represented by a predominance of people aged 16–17, with the highest frequency in 2021 (n=136,586). The group of children under 11 years of age was the least vulnerable to Covid-19 throughout all three years. Among schoolchildren aged 12 to 13, Covid-19 was diagnosed with the highest frequency during 2022. The mortality rate of children aged 0 to 17 ranged from 0.03% to 0.01% in Ukraine and 0.02% in Ternopil region.Conclusions. The incidence of Covid-19 among children in Ukraine was significantly lower than among adults. During the pandemic, in terms of age, patients over 12 years old predominated among sick children; the exception was 2023, when 2/3 of all patients were children aged 0 to 11 years old. Isolated deaths from Covid-19 were recorded in the child population, which is due to rare cases of severe respiratory syndrome.
References
O’Driscoll M, Ribeiro Dos Santos G, Wang L, Cummings DAT, Azman AS, Paireau J, Fontanet A, Cauchemez S, Salje H. Age-specific mortality and immunity patterns of SARS-CoV-2. Nature. 2021 Feb;590(7844):140-145. doi: 10.1038/ s41586-020-2918-0.
Sarfraz A, Hasan Siddiqui S, Iqbal J, Ali SA, Hasan Z, Sarfraz Z, Iqbal NT. COVID-19 age-dependent immunology and clinical outcomes: implications for vaccines. J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2022 Jun;13(3):277-283. doi: 10.1017/S2040174421000398.
Sava CN, Bodog TM, Niulas LR, Iuhas AR, Marinau CP, Negrut N, Balmos AB, Pasca B, Roman NA, Delia Nistor-Cseppento C. Biomarker Changes in Pediatric Patients With COVID-19: A Retrospective Study from a Single Center Database. In Vivo. 2022 Nov-Dec;36(6):2813-2822. doi: 10.21873/invivo.13019.
Georgia B Nikolopoulou , Helena C Maltezou. COVID-19 in Children: Where do we Stand? Arch Med Res. 2022 Jan;53(1):1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2021.07.002
Kapoor D, Kumar V, Pemde H, Singh P. Impact of Comorbidities on Outcome in Children With COVID-19 at a Tertiary Care Pediatric Hospital. Indian Pediatr. 2021 Jun 15;58(6):572-575. doi:10.1007/s13312-021-2244-0.
Lin DY, Xu Y, Gu Y, Zeng D, Wheeler B, Young H, Moore Z, Sunny SK. Effects of COVID-19 vaccination and previous SARS-CoV-2 infection on omicron infection and severe outcomes in children under 12 years of age in the USA: an observational cohort study. Lancet Infect Dis. 2023 Nov;23(11):1257-1265. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(23)00272-4.
Morello R, Martino L, Buonsenso D. Diagnosis and management of post-COVID (Long COVID) in children: a moving target. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2023Apr 1;35(2):184-192. doi: 10.1097/MOP.0000000000001221
Nugawela MD, Stephenson T, Shafran R, Chalder T, Dalrymple E, Ford T, Fox-Smith L, Harnden A, Heyman I, Ladhani SN, McOwat K, Simmons R, Swann O, Whittaker E; CLoCk Consortium; Pinto Pereira SM. Predicting post-COVID-19 condi- tion in children and young people up to 24 months after a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR-test: the CLoCk study. BMC Med. 2024 Nov 7;22(1):520. doi: 10.1186/s12916-024-03708-1.
Antypkin YuG, Lapshyn VF, Umanets TR, Kaminska TM. Banadyha NV, Koloskova ОK, Lychkovska OL, Harashchenko TA, Podolskiy VlV, Podolskiy VV. Analysis of the COVID-19 prevalence among children in Ukraine during the first year of the pandemic. CHILD`S HEALTH.2023-03:1-5. DOI: 10.22141/2224-0551.18.1.2023.1551
Nathanielsz J, Toh ZQ, Do LAH, Mulholland K, Licciardi PV. SARS-CoV- 2 infection in children and implications for vaccination. Pediatr Res. 2023 Apr;93(5):1177-1187. doi: 10.1038/s41390-022-02254-x. Epub 2022 Aug 15.
Bertran M, Amin-Chowdhury Z, Davies HG, Allen H, ClareT, Davison C, Sinnathamby M, Seghezzo G, Kall M, Williams H, Gent N, Ramsay ME, Ladhani SN, Oligbu G. COVID-19 deaths in children and young people in England, March 2020 to December 2021: An active prospective national surveillance study. PLoS Med.2022. Nov 8;19(11):e1004118. doi: 10.1371/ journal.pmed.1004118.
