Study: Vomiting and diarrhoea may be key symptoms of coronavirus in children

According to a study by British researchers, diarrhoea and vomiting could be important signs of coronavirus in children. Doctors are calling for the official list of symptoms of COVID-19 to be updated, the Guardian notes.

Currently, the coronavirus checklist in children includes only three symptoms: high temperature, continuous new cough and loss or change of sense of smell or taste. The latter was added to the list in May.

“In our group, diarrhea and vomiting were more predictive than, say, coughing or even changes in smell and taste,” said Dr. Tom Waterfield of Queen’s University in Belfast.

“If we actually want to diagnose the infection in children, we need to start looking at diarrhea and vomiting, not just the symptoms of the upper respiratory tract,” he added.

According to Dr. Tom Waterfield, if only the three recognized symptoms are taken into account, testing symptomatic children would identify 76% of cases, assuming a perfectly accurate test, while adding gastrointestinal symptoms to the checklist would bring the figure to 97%.

“Our data on nearly 250,000 children in the Covid app for symptom study suggests that children who have been tested positive have a wide range of symptoms and that coughing is not as common in children as in adults,” said Professor Tim Spector, of King’s College London.

“We also see intestinal symptoms and loss of appetite occur frequently, as well as classical fever,” said Tim Spector, adding that although gastrointestinal problems were observed in both adults and children, they were slightly more common in children compared to other symptoms.

The study took place between 6 April and 3 July and involved more than 990 children of UK health workers aged between two and 15. None had been admitted to the hospital with Covid-19.

All gave a blood sample, which was tested for antibodies against coronavirus, and data were also collected on their symptoms before the antibody results were revealed.

The team found that 68 children – 6.9% of the total – had antibodies to the disease, suggesting they had Covid-19, and half of them reported symptoms.

Some symptoms were particularly common, with 31% of the 68 children reporting fever, with 18% reporting headache and 19% reporting gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps.

For children without antibodies, the figures were 11% and 4% and 3% respectively.

“This is an important study that along with previous data from users of the Kings College app is beginning to build the arguments for including gastrointestinal symptoms among the criteria for defining the Covid-19 case,” concluded Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London.

PHOTO: Hepta