A study suggesting healthy school-age patients are at very limited risk of severe disease outcomes, reveals children who died from Covid-19 in the UK had “profound” underlying medical conditions. The report adds to previous indications that youthful patients suffer less from the disease than older people, but showed that Black or obese children are at a marginally higher risk.
Of the 651 cases reviewed, 42 per cent involved underlying health conditions, but only 18 per cent overall required intensive care. There were six deaths, all involving serious pre-existing conditions. Calum Semple, professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, said, “It is vanishingly rare to have severe disease in children.” He said the risk remains “tiny” even for Black or obese children. He added, “If you are a Black parent in Glasgow or London, your kids should still go back to school.”
The study published in the journal BMJ, reveals 52 of the children suffered a “multisystem inflammatory syndrome” that has been linked to coronavirus patients.
