Adolescents as partners in the fight against COVID-19

Helen Kest; Ashlesha Kaushik; Anne Jagunla; Somia Shaheen; Sahil Zaveri; Ninia Fernandez; Sandeep Gupta; David Goldberg

doi:10.1016/j.ijpam.2021.10.004

Adolescents as partners in the fight against COVID-19

Int J Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2022 Jun;9(2):113-116. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpam.2021.10.004. Epub 2021 Oct 28.

Authors

Helen Kest¹, Ashlesha Kaushik², Anne Jagunla³, Somia Shaheen³, Sahil Zaveri⁴, Ninia Fernandez⁵, Sandeep Gupta⁶, David Goldberg¹

Affiliations

¹ Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, 703, Main Street, Paterson, NJ, 07503, United States.
² Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Unity Point Health at St. Luke's Regional Medical Center and University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, 2720 Stone Park Blvd, Sioux City, IA, 51104, United States.
³ Department of Pediatrics, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, 703, Main Street, Paterson, NJ, 07503, United States.
⁴ St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, 703, Main Street, Paterson, NJ, 07503, United States.
⁵ Department of Microbiology, St. Joseph's Hospital, 703, Main Street, Paterson, NJ, 07503, United States.
⁶ Pulmonary and Critical Care, Unity Point Health at St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, 2720 Stone Park Blvd, Sioux City, IA, 51104, United States.

Abstract

We report our experience of COVID-19 disease burden among patients aged 0-21 years at two tertiary care institutions in the Northeast and Midwest from New Jersey and Iowa. Our results showed that during the initial surge (March to August 2020) at both geographic locations, majority of COVID-19 disease burden occurred in adolescents and that they were more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-related illnesses, as well as develop severe disease needing intensive care. The study results emphasize the need for providing more targeted interventions toward this group to help prevent disease acquisition and transmission.

Keywords: Adolescent COVID; Adolescents; COVID-19.