Regular monthly number of deaths in the United States of kids and youths (aged 0-19), where COVID-19 was noted as the cause of death on the death certificate. Credit: Flaxman et al. JAMA Network Open.
In between August 2021 and July 2022, COVID-19 was a leading cause of death in kids and youths in the United States, ranking 8th overall.
COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in children from a transmittable disease, in the very same duration.
Deaths in kids from COVID-19 were highest in the US during the Delta and Omicron waves.
Infants aged less than one year were the most susceptible, with a COVID-19 death rate of 4 per 100,000.
Pharmaceutical and public health interventions continue to be crucial to limit transmission of the virus and to reduce extreme illness in this age.
COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death for more than 940,000 individuals in the US, consisting of over 1,300 deaths amongst kids and young people aged 0– 19 years. Till now, it had actually been uncertain how the problem of deaths from COVID-19 compared to other leading causes of deaths in this age.
A new research study led by researchers at the University of Oxfords Department of Computer Science investigated this utilizing information from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention databases. The results are released today in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Secret findings for the research study duration 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022:
Monthly number of deaths in the US of children and young individuals (aged 0-19), where COVID-19 was noted as the cause of death on the death certificate. Due to the fact that deaths amongst children and young individuals in the US are uncommon, the mortality problem of COVID-19 is best comprehended in the context of all other causes of death in this age group.
Associate Professor Deepti Gurdasani, Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, a fellow co-author of the research study, said: “Its clear that COVID-19 is a significant cause of death in kids, being the leading cause of death from transmittable illness. Co-author Dr. Oliver Ratmann, from the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London, stated: “The main point of this research study is that in kids, the severity of COVID-19 infection is best comprehended by comparing like for like, i.e. relative to other causes of death in kids. We show that COVID-19 was a top-ten leading cause of death in kids in 2021-22 and the leading cause of death in kids from any contagious illness.
Among kids and youths aged 0– 19 years in the US, COVID-19 ranked eighth amongst all causes of death; fifth amongst all disease-related causes of death; and first in deaths caused by infectious or respiratory illness.
By age, COVID-19 ranked seventh (babies), seventh (1– 4-year-olds), sixth (5– 9-year-olds), 6th (10– 14-year-olds), and fifth (15– 19-year-olds).
COVID-19 was the underlying cause for 2% of deaths in children and young individuals (800 out of 43,000), with a general death rate of 1.0 per 100,000 of the population aged 0– 19. The leading cause of death (perinatal conditions) had a total death rate of 12.7 per 100,000; COVID-19 ranked ahead of influenza and pneumonia, which together had a death rate of 0.6 per 100,000.
Like lots of diseases, COVID-19 death rates followed a U-shaped pattern throughout this age range. COVID-19 death rates were greatest in babies aged less than one year (4.3 per 100,000), second highest in those aged 15– 19 years (1.8 per 100,000), and lowest in children aged 5– 9 years (0.4 per 100,000).
Overall, deaths in children and youths were higher throughout the Delta and Omicron waves compared to previous waves (pre-July 2021), likely reflecting the higher numbers infected throughout these periods. In the pre-Delta period of the pandemic, COVID-19 still ranked as the ninth leading cause of death overall.
The month with the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths in 0– 19 year-olds was January 2022 at 160.
COVID-19 amplifies the impacts of other diseases (such as pneumonia and influenza), this study focuses on deaths that were directly triggered by COVID-19, rather than those where COVID-19 was a contributing cause. It is likely that these results understate the true concern of COVID-19-related deaths in this age group.
Compared to other age, the general threat of death from COVID-19 was substantially lower in children and youths. For example, between 1 August 2021 and 31 July 2022, the COVID-19 death rate amongst any ages in the United States was 109 per 100,000. Due to the fact that deaths amongst children and young people in the United States are rare, the death concern of COVID-19 is best comprehended in the context of all other causes of death in this age group.
According to the researchers, these results recommend that, with variants of COVID-19 continuing to circulate, public health steps such as vaccinations, remaining house when ill, and ventilation still have a crucial role to play in limiting transmission of the infection and mitigating serious disease in kids and youths.
Associate Professor Seth Flaxman (Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford), lead author of the study, stated: “These outcomes show that while its rare for teens and kids to pass away in the US, COVID-19 is now the leading underlying cause of death from infectious illness for this age group. Numerous of the 82 million American kids and young individuals were contaminated throughout the big Delta and Omicron waves, and as a result more than 1,300 kids and young individuals have actually passed away from COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, most in the last two years.
Assistant Professor Robbie M. Parks of Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, a co-author of the study, said: “If you take a look at contagious illness in children in the United States traditionally, in the period before vaccines appeared, hepatitis A, rotavirus, rubella, and measles were all major causes of death. But when we compared those illness to COVID-19, we found that COVID-19 caused significantly more deaths in kids and young individuals than those other diseases did prior to vaccines became offered; this shows how seriously we require to take COVID-19 prevention and mitigation measures for the youngest age in the United States and worldwide.”
Partner Professor Deepti Gurdasani, Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, a fellow co-author of the research study, said: “Its clear that COVID-19 is a substantial cause of death in children, being the leading cause of death from contagious disease. Unfortunately, deaths from COVID-19 have continued to be significant in children, even during the Omicron era. We need mitigations (e.g., ventilation, air cleansing) to protect kids from infection, alongside available vaccination to lower the threat from extreme disease.”
Co-author Dr. Oliver Ratmann, from the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London, said: “The central point of this research study is that in kids, the severity of COVID-19 infection is best understood by comparing like for like, i.e. relative to other causes of death in kids. We show that COVID-19 was a top-ten leading cause of death in kids in 2021-22 and the leading cause of death in children from any contagious illness. So, COVID-19 is far from a safe infection in kids.”
Reference: “Assessment of COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death among children and young individuals aged 0 to 19 years in the US” by Seth Flaxman, PhD; Charles Whittaker, PhD; Elizaveta Semenova, PhD; Theo Rashid, MSci; Robbie M. Parks, PhD; Alexandra Blenkinsop, PhD; H. Juliette T. Unwin, PhD; Swapnil Mishra, PhD; Samir Bhatt, DPhil; Deepti Gurdasani, PhD and Oliver Ratmann, PhD, 30 January 2023, JAMA Network Open.DOI: 10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2022.53590.