Differences in Clinical Presentation of COVID-19 in Children Hospitalized During Domination of Early (BA.1, BA.2) and Late (BA.5, BA.2.75, BQ.1 and XBB.1.5) SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Subvariants

Maria Pokorska-Śpiewak; Małgorzata Pawłowska; Przemysław Ciechanowski; Michał Peregrym; Anna Dobrzeniecka; Małgorzata Sobolewska-Pilarczyk; Justyna Franczak; Ewa Majda-Stanisławska; Barbara Szczepańska; Izabela Zaleska; Robert Flisiak

doi:10.1097/INF.0000000000004167

Differences in Clinical Presentation of COVID-19 in Children Hospitalized During Domination of Early (BA.1, BA.2) and Late (BA.5, BA.2.75, BQ.1 and XBB.1.5) SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Subvariants

Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2023 Nov 3. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004167. Online ahead of print.

Affiliations

¹ From the Department of Children's Infectious Diseases, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
² Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Regional Hospital of Infectious Diseases in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
³ Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Faculty of Medicine, Collegium Medicum, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases, Regional Hospital in Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland.
⁵ Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, Pediatric Surgery and Otorhinolaryngology,Collegium Medicum Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland.
⁷ Department of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland.
⁸ Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland.

PMID: 37922516
DOI: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004167

Abstract

This study analyzed data for 1098 children: 575 diagnosed with COVID-19 between January and June 2022 (early Omicron) and 523 hospitalized from July 2022 to April 2023 (late Omicron). New Omicron subvariants lead to similar recovery rates without deaths and acute respiratory distress syndrome in children as BA.1 and BA.2, however, they more often cause fever and croup. Children suffering from comorbidities, presenting with pulmonary lesions and older, may be prone to a more severe consequences of COVID-19 in terms of the currently dominating Omicron subvariants.