Cases of kids with COVID-19 and croup rose amid Omicron surgeA new study shows that the proportion of children diagnosed as having COVID-19 and croup was significantly higher during the Omicron surge than in earlier waves dominated by other variants.Croup is an upper airway infection generally affecting children.
It causes swelling around the larynx, trachea, and bronchi, resulting in labored breathing and a "barking" cough.Late last week in JAMA Network Open, researchers from Children's Minnesota reported on their study of 5,152 children aged 3 months to 8 years diagnosed as having croup related to COVID-19 from Jan 1, 2021, to Mar 26, 2022.
The team used data from 43 US children's hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System. Median patient age was 17 months, and 64.6% were boys.The proportion of children with both infections was 10.9% in the Omicron era, up from 4.1% amid Alpha and other variants and 3.6% during Delta.
The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of hospitalization for infections caused by Alpha or other variants was 1.28 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.97 to 1.70), while it was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.74 to 1.15) during Delta—figures not significantly different from that of the Omicron period.Racemic epinephrine (RE) to reduce swelling was used less often during the Delta era (aOR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.87) and didn't differ in periods dominated by Alpha or other variants (aOR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.81 to 1.31) relative to the Omicron era, suggesting lower disease severity during Delta.