Children with asthma not at increased risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection, study finds

 From the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, a real ongoing concern was identifying children and adolescents who could be high risk for poor outcomes with COVID 19 infections.  Asthma was presumed to be one of these conditions.  However, although mucosal respiratory viruses all have the potential to trigger asthma exacerbations, high quality data consistent fails to show any increased risk of COVID 19 related complications.  However, another Scottish study from last year reported higher risk for hospitalization due to asthma exacerbations after a COVID 19 infection if asthma was NOT well controlled.  To put it simply, if your child has asthma make sure it is controlled.

In a new study published in Pediatrics, researchers concluded that children with asthma have similar risk for for SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with children without asthma.

“We found no evidence that children with asthma are at higher risk of COVID-19 or of developing severe illness from COVID-19,” Matthew Kelly, MD, MPH, associate professor of pediatrics and global health, associate program director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship and associate director of physician-scientist development in the Office of Pediatric Education at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, told Healio.

Kelly and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study that included 46,900 children aged 5 to 17 years in the Duke University Health System with a Durham County, North Carolina, residential address. Children with asthma were classified using previously validated electronic health record-based definitions, and SARS-CoV-2 infections were identified via positive polymerase chain reaction testing of samples collected from March 2020 to September 2021. Children with asthma were matched to those without asthma.

“Because severe asthma exacerbations are often associated with respiratory virus infections, there has been concern that children with asthma who acquire SARS-CoV-2 might be at high risk for severe illness,” Kelly told Healio. “However, we and others had seen relatively few children with SARS-CoV-2 infections hospitalized with asthma exacerbations; moreover, there were some data to suggest that asthma, or the inhaled corticosteroids commonly prescribed to children with asthma, might lower the risk of acquiring SARS-CoV-2.”

Read article here.

Read study here.