1 - Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, Hospital Dona Estefânia, CHULC, Lisbon, Portugal
2 - Immunology and Infectious Serology Department, CHULC, Lisbon, Portugal
- Comunicação oral em congresso internacional
Resumo:
Introduction: When the pandemic started the serological tests for SARS-CoV-2 were quickly developed. However, the results in pediatric age are limited and the immune response to the virus is poorly known, by now.
Aim: Evaluate the serological response of hospitalized patients suffering from SARSCoV-2, in a tertiary pediatric hospital.
Methods: Descriptive study of the serological condition of patients under the age of 18, after their hospitalization due to COVID-19, from April 2020 to May 2021. The method used was electrochemiluminescence with the reagent Elecsys® Anti SARS-CoV-2, from Roche.
Results: From a total of 207 patients, 162 (78,3%) developed SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The median of age was 6 years (min 13 days; max 17 years), 60% were male. 71/162 (43,8%) were asymptomatic and hospitalized for another pathology. The remaining 91 of 162 cases were symptomatic and the diagnosis were multisystemic inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 (MIS-C) (17,9%), COVID-19 (16%), pneumonia (13,6%), small infant sepsis (5%), CNS disease (2,3%) and myocarditis (1,2%). From these 91 symptomatic cases, 9% had mild disease, 40% moderate, 15% severe and 36% critical. 30% of these had chronic disease and 4,4% were on immunosuppressants. The antibodies were detected with a median of 4 months post infection (min 1 month; max 13 months). From the 45/207 (21,7%) patients who did not develop antibodies, the median age was 5 years (min 21 days; max 18 years) and 62% were male. 25/45 were asymptomatic and hospitalized for another pathology. The rest 20/45 were symptomatic patients and their diagnosis were pneumonia (13), COVID-19 (5), small infant sepsis (1) and CNS disease (1). As for severity, 10% had mild disease, 50% moderate, 30% severe and 10% critical. Three of those patients had chronic disease. Pneumonia was associated with severe disease (<0,01); however, in most cases antibodies were not detected (p=0,015).
Conclusion: The duration of antibodies after the infection by SARS-CoV-2 in pediatric age remains unknown. However, in this study it is higher than the reported in studies made with adults and it can give information for the understanding of the immunity to COVID-19 in the long term.
Palavras Chave: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 antibodies; Pediatric age