Atypical presentation of COVID-19 in young infants (Équipe Corvol)

Lancet. 2020;395(10235):1481

As of April 27, 2020, more than two million people worldwide have been diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), with Europe being one of the current major clusters of the pandemic. Despite an absence of evidence, children have been targeted as a potential source of children-to-adult virus dissemination, and schools have been closed in most countries. However, findings seem to indicate a lower susceptibility of children to COVID-19 and low contagiousness. Within 7 days of imposed population quarantine in France (initiated on March 17, 2020), we observed an increase in number of young infants with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

In our paediatric hospital, patients presenting with fever or respiratory symptoms, or both, and requiring admission to hospital are admitted to a dedicated SARS-CoV-2 infection unit. During the first week of quarantine, 14 infants younger than 3 months were admitted to this unit, and five of these young infants were diagnosed with COVID-19 on the basis of nasopharyngeal swabs positive for SARS-CoV-2. Their clinical presentations differed from those reported in articles about children with COVID-19, which present little data from younger infants.