Clinical and epidemiological profiles of children with COVID-19 in Morocco

Introduction: In December 2019, the COVID-19 disease, caused by a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) appeared in Wuhan, China, and quickly spread worldwide. There is little information on the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in pediatrics. Objectives: Describe the clinical and epidemiological profiles in children under 15 years of age with COVID-19 in Morocco. Methods: A series of cases of children under the age of 15 with COVID-19 nationwide were included from March 02 to May 03, 2020.All cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been confirmed by RT-PCR of samples taken from nasopharyngeal swabs. The epidemic curve was constructed based on the date of clinical investigation of the disease. Results: In the study cohort, 495 children were infected with SARS-Cov2, or 9.4% of all COVID-19 cases nationwide. Children therefore seem to be little affected by this virus. The mean age of these children was 7.3 ± 4.1 years, more than half of the cases (54.3%) were asymptomatic and 39.7% presented with a benign clinical picture. Symptoms common to admission were cough and fever which were the most frequent signs with 76% and 62% respectively. The average incubation period was 5 days and 81.9% of cases had an incubation period <7 days. Only one death was recorded in a 17 month old infant and the cure rate was 25.3% as of May 03, 2020. Conclusions: Infected children are generally asymptomatic or have relatively milder clinical symptoms than infected adults. We must attach importance to the detection, diagnosis and early treatment of infected children.