Indirect impact on number of admitted children with COVID-19 in the first three months of emergency use of two vaccines, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

  1. CGB Fonseca
  2. ALTG Costa
  3. MDM Esteves
  4. BRR de Carvalho
  5. CV Souza
  6. CH Teixeira
  7. AR Araujo da Silva

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Abstract

Introduction

Since January 19, 2021, two vaccines against SARS-COV-2 are available in Brazil for emergency use for selected groups, not including children.

Aim

To describe indirect impact on the number of hospitalized children with COVID-19 in the first three months after beginning of emergency use of two vaccines.

Methods

A retrospective study was conducted in children (0-18 years), admitted in two pediatric hospitals of Rio de Janeiro city, between January and April 2021 with confirmed COVID-19 by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or serological tests. Number of cases, clinical signs, symptoms and outcomes were compared with the first wave of disease (April-June 2020). A p value of less than .05 were considered was significant.

Results

The number of total admitted patients (with all diseases) were 1097 in 2020 period, being 46 (4.2%) of them with confirmed COVID-19, and 2187 in the 2021 period, with 47 (2.1%) cases (p=0.006). Predominant respiratory symptoms were present in 29/46 (63%) as the main presentation in 2020 patients and 37/47 (78.7%) in 2021 children (p=0.09). The main symptoms were fever, cough and dyspnoea in both periods. The median of lenght of stay after diagnosis were 4 days in 2020 and 2021 (p=0.9). Just one patient died in 2021.

Conclusion

There was reduction of relative percentage of admitted confirmed pediatric cases in the the first three months of emergency use of two vaccines against SARS-COV-2, but it’s uncertain to atribute this finding to vaccination due to high circulation of the virus in the city.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.01.21259330: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: Ethical aspects: The study was submitted and approved by Ethics Committee of Faculty of Medicine (Universidade Federal Fluminense) and Prontobaby Group, under number 4.100.232 dated from June 20, 2020.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Data source and statistical analysis: The two periods were analysed regarding the following variables: Total number of admitted patients (with all diseases), total number of admitted patients with confirmed COVID-19, the main clinical symptoms present on admission and number of deaths A descriptive analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel.
    Microsoft Excel
    suggested: (Microsoft Excel, RRID:SCR_016137)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Our study has some limitations. The first one is that our data showed pattern of admissions in two pediatric hospital of the city. But considering that both hospitals are the biggest institutions dedicated exclusively to the children care in the city, that data could reflect the true dynamics of SARS-COV-2 circulation in the city. The second limitation is possible influence of knowledge acquistion of pediatricians to treat COVID-19, during the first year of pandemic, resulting in fewer relative percentage of admitted children with COVID-19 in 2021. Despite this possibility could be not rulled out, until the current date, no drug was approved in Brazil to avoid or reduce pediatric COVID-19 admissions.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.07.01.21259330v1 on medRxiv