COVID-19 in Turkey: A tertiary center experience.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a serious epidemic in our country and all over the world since December 2019 and has become a global health problem. The disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been named as coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19).

Methods: We report on the epidemiological and clinical features of 37 children diagnosed with COVID-19.

Results: The median age was of the children was 10 years and 57.1% were male. In addition, 78.3% of the children had a history of contact with adult patients who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 27.0% had coexisting medical conditions. We found that 40.5% of our patients had mild infection, while 32.4% had moderate infection, and 27.1% had developed severe or critical illness. The most common abnormal laboratory findings in our patients were decreased lymphocytes (45.9%) and increased D-dimer values (43.2%), while abnormal radiological findings were detected in 56.7% of the children. In addition, 64.8% of the children had received azithromycin, 59.4% had received oseltamivir, and hydroxychloroquine was used in combination with azithromycin in 35.1% of the children. Non-invasive mechanical ventilation was required in 27.0% of the children.

Conclusions: Although COVID-19 infection is usually mild in children, severe illness can be seen in children with comorbidities, or even in children who were previously healthy.