Scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have found that children with asthma are not at higher risk of severe COVID. The study was published on: Asthma and Allergy Magazine.
Because children with asthma tend to be more susceptible to respiratory illnesses such as influenza, it was thought that they may also be vulnerable to serious infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
A new study finds no significant difference in disease severity between children without asthma and those with asthma across multiple waves of the epidemic.
For the analysis, researchers looked at data on all children aged under 17 who joined the Sydney Children’s Hospital network between January 2020 and May 2022 with a positive COVID PCR test. 5.41% of them were diagnosed with asthma before infection.
72 children with severe infections were taken to intensive care units. Children with asthma were not at higher risk of being admitted to the intensive care unit in either wave. 19 children required mechanical ventilation, only two of whom had asthma. Only one in 11 deaths was associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and was not recorded among children with asthma.
However, when the omicron was the dominant species, the hospital stay of children with asthma increased by 1.17 days. That means continuing to monitor for emerging COVID-19 variants and encouraging children, especially those with underlying health conditions, to comply with vaccinations that can help reduce the risk of serious respiratory infections.
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