Children and COVID- 19 infection: A case series of Iran

BACKGROUND: World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID -19 infection a global pandemic. Children have milder disease than adults but different aspects of disease in children are not fully understood. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe 5 pediatric patients with COVID-19 that referred to Amirkola Children’s Hospital, Babol, Iran. The youngest patient was 4 years old and the oldest was 12 years old. Three patients were males. None of the patients had a history of contacts with symptomatic patients with COVID -19. The most common symptoms included fever, cough, anorexia, weakness and diarrhea. One patient had gastrointestinal symptoms without respiratory symptoms. All patients had elevated ESR and CRP. Three of them had lymphopenia. RT-PCR was positive in all patients. Management included supportive care, antibiotics, antiviral treatment and hydroxychloroquine. All patients were discharged with good condition. CONCLUSION: Children may have a variety of symptoms including respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms. Mortality is rare in children and prognosis is better than the adults.