Autor(es):
Bauhofer, Adilson Fernando Loforte ; Miranda, Emerson ; Ussivane, Édio ; Chissaque, Assucênio ; António, Luciana ; Campos, Fernanda ; Pololo, Ramígio ; Iahaia, Fátima ; Gatambire, Aline ; Ráice, Fátima ; Djedje, Marlene ; Salência, Judite ; Maholela, Plácida ; Gonçalves, Luzia ; Inlamea, Osvaldo ; de Deus, Nilsa
Data: 2024
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/173031
Origem: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Assunto(s): children; COVID-19; death; hospital; Mozambique; Infectious Diseases; Virology; SDG 2 - Zero Hunger; SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Descrição
Funding Information: This research was funded by the \u201Cla Caixa\u201D and the Calouste Gulbenkian foundations in the framework of the Support for Health Research Projects in PALOP Call for Proposals (grant number 260403). AFLB is a fellow from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; grant number JO369/5-1 and JO369/5-2). LG was supported by Funda\u00E7\u00E3o para Ci\u00EAncia e Tecnologia\u2014Portugal\u2014projects UIDB/00006/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDB/00006/2020) and UIDP/00006/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDP/00006/2020). The APC was funded by \u201Cla Caixa\u201D and the Calouste Gulbenkian foundations (grant number 260403). Publisher Copyright: © 2024 by the authors.
The epidemiology and characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 in the hospitalized Mozambican pediatric population are scarce. We aimed to assess the burden of COVID-19 in the pediatric population at Hospital Central de Maputo and identify comorbidities and factors associated with death among hospitalized COVID-19 cases. A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2020 to October 2022. Available records were retrieved from admission books. Univariate and bivariate analyses were reported to describe the sample characteristics. The frequency of pediatric cases admitted with COVID-19 was 0.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.5–0.6; 364/63,753), and the frequency of pediatric cases hospitalized with COVID-19 was 2.5% (95% CI: 2.2–2.9; 173/6807). The monthly frequency of pediatric cases admitted and hospitalized with COVID-19 ranged from 0.1% to 5.4% and from 0.2% to 42.1%, respectively. In children hospitalized with COVID-19, underweight was the most observed comorbidity (17.4%; 19/109); death was observed in 30% (95% CI: 22.2–39.1; 33/110), and it was significantly higher in underweight children than in non-underweight children (61.5% [8/13] vs. 21.3% [16/75]; p-value = 0.005). Given the heightened risk of mortality among undernourished children compared to non-undernourished children, vaccination for COVID-19 should be prioritized for undernourished children.
