May 12: Children suffering from non-respiratory disease symptoms like diarrhea and fever, or those with a history of exposure to the novel coronavirus, should be suspected of having COVID-19, a new study says.
According to the research, published in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics, gastrointestinal symptoms first suffered by some children hints at potential infection with SARS-CoV-2 through the digestive tract.
"This case series is the first report to describe the clinical features of COVID-19 with non-respiratory symptoms as the first manifestation in children," the scientists from Tongji Hospital in China wrote in the study.
They explained that the gastrointestinal symptoms could be arising since the type of receptors in lung cells targeted by the virus can also be found in the intestines.
Most children are only mildly affected by COVID-19, and the few severe cases often have underlying health issues, the researchers said.
"It is easy to miss its diagnosis in the early stage, when a child has non-respiratory symptoms, or suffers from another illness," said study co-author Wenbin Li, who works at the Department of Pediatrics, Tongji Hospital.
"Based on our experience of dealing with COVID-19, in regions where this virus is epidemic, children suffering from digestive tract symptoms, especially with fever and/or a history of exposure to this disease, should be suspected of being infected with this virus," Li said.
In the study, the scientists described the clinical features of children admitted to hospital with non-respiratory symptoms, who were subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia and COVID-19.
"These children were seeking medical advice in the emergency department for unrelated problems, for example, one had a kidney stone, another a head trauma," Li said.
The study noted that all the children had pneumonia, which was confirmed by chest X-ray scan before or soon after admission.
These children were then confirmed to have COVID-19.
While their COVID-19 symptoms were initially mild or relatively hidden before their hospital admission, four out of the five cases had digestive tract symptoms as the first manifestation of this disease, the researchers said.
Li hopes that doctors will use the findings to quickly diagnose and isolate patients with similar symptoms, which may aid early treatment and reduce transmission.
According to the researchers, the children's gastrointestinal symptoms, which have also been recorded in adult patients, could be an additional route of infection.
"The gastrointestinal symptoms experienced by these children may be related to the distribution of receptors and the transmission pathway associated with COVID-19 infection in humans," Li explained.
Since the virus infects people via the ACE2 receptor, which can be found in certain cells in the lungs as well as the intestines, COVID-19 might infect patients not only through the respiratory tract in the form of air droplets, but also through the digestive tract by contact or fecal-oral transmission, the study noted.
While COVID-19 tests can occasionally produce false positive readings, Li said all the five children assessed in the study were infected with the disease.
However, he cautioned that more research is needed to confirm their findings.
"We report five cases of COVID-19 in children showing non-respiratory symptoms as the first manifestation after admission to hospital. The incidence and clinical features of similar cases needs further study in more patients," he said.
Comments
anybody got their grevences answered here
corporation lights of cemetrey not glowing since two months. On 1st November 2019 is holy souls day. Kindly repair the lights at the earliest.
Fr. Joseph J. Lobo
Parish Priest
Street light is not working since 15 days. On 23rd July 2019 complaint lodged with Mobile No7353933410. Till date they are not responding
hello / madam
Keeping the city clean is our duty. I know not everybody is following that. We need some awareness program
to keep our city clean green and hygenic. Its our duty to keep the environment clean and place around us.
But it is also the duty of Corporation to maintain the cleanliness aroud the city, in some parts of the city like market, near clock tower circle its not been getting cleaned from past few days. Please do the needfull for betterment of tomorrow
thank you
Dear Madam, I have purchased 1 BHK flat in Green City, Vamadapadav on October, 2013 and paid full amount to builder T3 Urban Developers LTD. As per agreement possession was in December, 2015 but still building is not ready.
There were 5 buildings in Green City and at a time builder started 3 buildings construction work. I have purchased middle of the building and that building 1st floor slab only completed and since long time work stopped.
Last year builder agreed to give me flat in 1st building but building’s interior work is still pending and since 1 year work totally stopped.
Presently builder is not picking call or not responding for query. It seems that he is cheating with me. Kindly help me to resolve this issue. I will be grateful to you.
Sir/Madam,
Four street lights are not working on Raghavendra Matt Road, Hosabettu, Surathkal since long.
The roads are in Shabby condition and hence difficult in the night to Padastrians.
Kindly arrange to replace the treet lights on Main road, Raghavendra Matt Road, Hosabettu, near and after the Areca Field.
the kalbavi road in kottara ashok nagar was provided with ugd pipe line during last year. as usual the centre of road was dug up in march 2018 for this purpose making the road not motorable during the monsoon of 2018.
the asphalt work is now planned now during nov2018 by mcc. this road is very narrow and not having the foot path or road side drain at all.
both the ugd agency as well as the asphalting agency have put the muck/soil on the sides of the road, making it now impossible to walk when there is traffic. also during monsoons , storm water from the entire stretch for about 500 ft will flow on this road itself which is diverted to my compound/pure water sump due to the faulty work of mcc.
in spite of repeated requests/complaints to the commissioner,corporators, engineers of mcc, publishing of the photos of the same in some news papers,action is yet to be taken.
now at least it is requested to remove all the above dumped muck /soil on either sides of this road which is also preventing the entry of monsoon water th the existing drain near the starting point of sagar court.
Street light not working at kulai kavinakallu 2nd street
Relevant department has to look into the matter seriously and work on it and mark the matter as closed so that its notified as closed. Its a good move for public and public workers to work hand in hand
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