Out-of-hospital deaths among children during COVID-19 pandemic: indicator of collateral damage?

Heini Harve-Rytsälä; Laura Puhakka; Markku Kuisma; Mikael Kuitunen; Jelena Oulasvirta; Heli Salmi

doi:10.1136/bmjpo-2020-000763

Out-of-hospital deaths among children during COVID-19 pandemic: indicator of collateral damage?

BMJ Paediatr Open. 2020 Aug 13;4(1):e000763. doi: 10.1136/bmjpo-2020-000763. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Heini Harve-Rytsälä¹, Laura Puhakka², Markku Kuisma¹, Mikael Kuitunen², Jelena Oulasvirta^{3

4

5}, Heli Salmi²

Affiliations

¹ Emergency Medicine and Services, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland.
² New Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland.
³ Helsingin ja Uudenmaan Sairaanhoitopiiri, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, The University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland.
⁵ Division of Anaesthesiology, Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland.

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the out-of-hospital mortality, and the actual prevalence of COVID-19 in children requiring paediatric emergency department (ED) care for infectious symptoms. There were four emergency medical services (EMS) responses concerning children (age 0-15 years) leading to death on-scene in 2 months during the pandemic, and eight during the previous 12 months in the Helsinki University Hospital area, although the number of EMS missions decreased by 18%. The prevalence of COVID-19 in children contacting a paediatric ED for any infectious symptoms during the epidemic peak was only 2.7%.

Keywords: ethics; health services research; mortality.