78% of pediatric coronavirus deaths occur in Black, Hispanic or Indigenous populations
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
According to a new report in MMWR, 78% of pediatric deaths related to SARS-CoV-2 occurred in Black, Hispanic, American Indian, or Alaska Native people, although these groups represent just 41% of the U.S. population.
The report covered a nearly 6-month period from Feb. 12 through July 31, during which 391,814 cases of COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) were reported to the CDC in people aged younger than 21 years, including 121 deaths.
This age group accounted for 8% of total cases and .08% of total deaths from the coronavirus during the study period, according to Danae Bixler, MD, MPH, from the CDC’s COVID-19 Response Team, and colleagues.
Mortality was more likely among male youths, who accounted for 63% of the 121 deaths, the researchers reported. Young adults aged 18 to 20 years accounted for 41.3% (n = 50) of deaths.
Of the 121 young people who died, 75% (n = 91) had at least one underlying medical condition and 45% (n = 54) had two or more underlying conditions. The most commonly reported conditions were chronic lung disease, including asthma 28% (n = 34); obesity 27% (n = 33); neurologic and developmental conditions 22% (n = 26); and cardiovascular conditions 18% (n = 22).
Bixler and colleagues noted that 65% (n = 79) of deaths occurred after hospital admission, whereas 32% (39) occurred at home or in the ED. The highest proportion of deaths at home or inside the ED occurred in infants (33%) and people aged between 14 and 20 years (37%).
Perspective
Back to Top
David Cennimo, MD
There are a lot of data to unpack in this report. From February to July, 8% of U.S. COVID-19 cases were in people aged younger than 21 years. Of these, 121 deaths were noted, representing .08% of all cases. The mortality data highlight the risks at the extremes of pediatric ages. Ten percent of the mortality was in infants younger than 1 year old and 70% of deaths were in the 10- to 20-year-old age group.
Most striking was the fact that half of those deaths were in patients aged 18 to 20 years. These data are consistent with other studies showing less severe infections in young school-aged children. Similar to adult data, 65% of the children who died had some comorbidity.
In a deeper dive, 75% of the deaths occurred in children of color (Black, Hispanic or Indigenous), which is a highly disproportionate share compared with the U.S. population, and has been seen in adult data sets.
Finally, although we all worry about MIS-C, only 12% in this data set has a clinical syndrome consistent with that diagnosis, illustrating the pediatric risk for COVID-19 even without developing MIS-C. I think this will help focus our monitoring and concerns for children's infections moving forward.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts