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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1440107
This article is part of the Research Topic Methods In Pediatric Infectious Diseases 2024 View all articles

Epidemiological characterization of COVID-19 in children under 18 Years Old in Mexico: An analysis of the pandemic

Provisionally accepted
Isamu Daniel Takane-Cabrera Isamu Daniel Takane-Cabrera Fanny Yasmin Ortega-Vargas Fanny Yasmin Ortega-Vargas Ilen Adriana Díaz-Torres Ilen Adriana Díaz-Torres Aldo Agustin Herrera-González Aldo Agustin Herrera-González Antonio R. Villa Antonio R. Villa Miguel Leonardo García-León Miguel Leonardo García-León Patricia Bautista-Carbajal Patricia Bautista-Carbajal Miguel A. Pérez-Sastre Miguel A. Pérez-Sastre Luis Alberto Cortazar-Maldonado Luis Alberto Cortazar-Maldonado Jorge Baruch Díaz-Ramírez Jorge Baruch Díaz-Ramírez Rosa Maria Wong-Chew Rosa Maria Wong-Chew *
  • Faculty of Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The study aimed to describe the characteristics and risk factors associated with disease severity across six waves of COVID-19 in the pediatric population in Mexico. Methods: A cohort study was conducted using data from the Mexican Ministry of Health, covering the period from March 2020 to March 2023. The dataset included patients under 18 years of age with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Univariate, bivariate, and logistic regression analyses were performed to determine demographic and clinical characteristics, mortality across waves, and age group distributions. Results: Of the total cohort, 9.5% were children, with 497,428 confirmed cases. Among these, 50% were male, 4.4% required hospitalization, and there were 1,447 (0.03%) deaths. The highest prevalence was observed in the 12 to 17-year age group (52%), followed by the 5 to 11-year age group (32%), with incidence rates peaking towards the end of 2021 and the early 2022. Although the 0-2-year age group represented 9.6% of cases, it had higher hospitalization (40%), ICU admission (58%), and case fatality rate (CFR) (44%). Cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and immunosuppression were identified as risk factors for severe outcomes. The initial wave displayed the highest CFR (OR 5.28) especially in children aged 0-2 years. Conclusions: Children were less affected during the pandemic compared to adults; however, children under two years-old experienced more severe outcomes. Currently, with 95% of the population estimated to be immune due to vaccination and/or prior infection, children under 2 years of age are now at higher risk of severe disease and should be evaluated for vaccination as a public health policy.

    Keywords: COVID-191, SARS-CoV-22, Children3, Mexico4, pandemic5, Incidence6, waves7, mortality8

    Received: 31 May 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Takane-Cabrera, Ortega-Vargas, Díaz-Torres, Herrera-González, Villa, García-León, Bautista-Carbajal, Pérez-Sastre, Cortazar-Maldonado, Díaz-Ramírez and Wong-Chew. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rosa Maria Wong-Chew, Faculty of Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

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