Outcome of Covid-19- Infection in Patients Aged 0-12 Years at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: -COVID-19 has caused mortality among the 3,154 children and became the 3rd leading cause of death globally. It’s caused by different strains of SARs-Cov-2-viruses that include omicron which is the novel type. The prevalence of Covid-19 Infection in pediatric population is 17.5% -19% in the US as was reported by CDC in 2022. There is inadequate information on the outcome of covid-19 in children especially in the developing countries. This observation impedes the development of appropriate measures of intervention to promote recovery in children from the disease. Objective: -This study sought to determine Outcome of COVID-19 Infection in pediatric patients. Methods: -This was a retrospective analytic study. Samples of 100 children who attended Kenyatta National Hospital from Sept, 2019 to December, 2022 and screened for COVID-19-and tested Positive were recruited to participate in the study. Sample size determination was in one weeks period. With help of Dr. Taros formula i calculated sample size. Data was analyzed descriptively utilizing percentages and frequencies as well as multivariate and inferential statistics using SPSS Version 25. Findings were presented in form of tables, graphs and charts. Ethical approval was sought from the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospital research committee. Results: - The children who took three days and three days later after falling sick represented by 37.9% and 41.1%. Respectively. The children who came later after day three had a higher death rate of 2.6% among the admitted cases. About 90.5% of the cases were admitted in the 3 general wards and the remaining were in HDU and CCU. One key factor that influenced recovery was the early hospital attendance. CONCLUSION: The study reported that most of the children who were critically sick that required ICU and even those who died was as a result of late hospital attendance