Apnea or cyanosis as COVID-19 initial presentation in newborns.

INTRODUCTION: The clinical manifestation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection in newborns varies from asymptomatic infection to severe illness. Apnea or cyanosis as the earliest symptoms is rarely mentioned. The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of newborns with COVID-19 infection admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit considering cyanosis or apnea as a form of presentation. METHODOLOGY: This is a descriptive observational study with retrospectively collected data. All neonates under 30 days old and preterm infants with corrected gestational age of 44 weeks who had confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection with a positive antigen or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and who were attended to between March 2020 and March 2022 were included. RESULTS: During the two years of the study, 410 patients were admitted to the neonatal unit. Twenty-six patients (6.3%) presented with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The main clinical characteristic at admission was apnea in 55% and cyanosis in 45%. Of the 11 patients admitted with this presentation, eight were diagnosed with COVID-19 acute upper respiratory disease, and three met the definition of COVID-19 bronchiolitis. A large proportion of the patients had a mild infection (65%, n = 17), 31% (n = 8) had a severe infection and only one patient had a critical infection, accounting for 4%. CONCLUSIONS: Apnea and cyanosis can be a manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection in newborns, which suggests the need to include it in the diagnostic workup as other viral respiratory infections.

Clinical Characteristics of Children With SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Hospital in Latin America.

Objective: COVID-19 infections have shown a different behavior in children than in adults. The objective of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pediatric patients seen at a reference hospital in Colombia. Method: A descriptive, observational study in patients under the age of 18 years with a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 infection (RT-PCR or antigen) between April 2020 and March 2021. Multiple variables were studied, including demographic data, clinical characteristics, lab measurements, treatments administered, intensive care unit admission, and mortality. Results: A total of 361 patients were included of whom 196 (54%) were males. The median age was 3 years. Of all the patients, 65 (18%) were asymptomatic. The majority of patients had no comorbidities (n = 225, 76%). In those who were symptomatic (n = 296, 82%), the most frequent complaints were fever (n = 178, 60%), nasal congestion (n = 164, 55%) and cough (n = 149, 50%). Chest x-rays were normal in 73 patients (50%). When abnormalities were found, interstitial (29%) and alveolar (12%) patterns were the most prevalent. One hundred and fifty-seven children (53%) required general ward hospitalization, and 24 patients (8%) required pediatric intensive care admission. The global mortality was 0.8% (3 patients). Conclusions: The majority of cases were asymptomatic or mild. However, a significant percentage of patients required general ward admission, and some even required intensive care. The main symptom of COVID-19 infections in newborns was apnea. A second COVID-19 RT-PCR may be necessary to detect infections in critically ill patients with a high clinical suspicion of the disease if an initial test was negative.