Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine conducted a comprehensive review of a number of studies pertaining to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, uncovering that infants less than three months old are more likely to avoid severe illness and recover fully with ease.
As published in the Journal of Pediatrics, the study included data of the young patients which began in November 2019 up until June of 2020.
“We excluded studies reporting neonates with perinatal COVID exposure and diagnosis prior to hospital discharge and hospital-onset disease, as well as clinically diagnosed cases without confirmation,” researchers explained in their findings.
“Two independent reviewers performed study screening, data abstraction, and risk of bias assessment. Variables of interest included patient age, exposure to COVID-19, past medical history, clinical symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 testing, laboratory findings, clinical course, and disposition,” they also stated.
Overall, the Johns Hopkins research team scoured through 38 publications with 23 single case reports and as many as 63 infants confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus strain.
According to their findings, the majority of the infected patients were relatively mild-to-moderate cases of the coronavirus-based infection, and symptoms improved with subsequent care.
“Our results demonstrate a need for a high index of suspicion for SARS-CoV-2 infection in young infants presenting with generalized symptoms such as fever or decreased feeding, even in the absence of respiratory symptoms,” the research team concluded in their findings.
“Further studies of SARS-CoV-2 infection in this special population are needed to address unanswered questions about how infants acquire the virus and what impacts it may have on their future health,” co-author Julia Johnson also concluded in a news release of the findings.
