Omicron is “less serious” than delta for children under 4 years old, according to a study

New research from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in the United States suggests that children under 5 years of age infected with the omicron variant of COVID-19 are at lower risk of serious health outcomes than those infected with the omicron variant. delta variant.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is the first large-scale research effort to compare health outcomes of omicron to delta coronavirus infection in children ages 4 and younger, the age group that cannot be vaccinated yet.

The results show that the omicron variant is between 6 and 8 times more infectious than the delta variant. Serious clinical outcomes ranged from a 16% lower risk of emergency room visits to an 85% lower risk of mechanical ventilation. And about 1.8% of children infected with omicron were hospitalized, compared to 3.3% with delta.

The team analyzed the electronic medical records of more than 651,640 children in the United States who had a medical encounter with healthcare organizations between 9/2021 and 1/2022, including more than 22,772 children infected with omicron in late December and late January, with more than 66,000 children infected when delta was prevalent in the fall. The study also compared the records of more than 10,000 children immediately before the detection of omicron in the US, but when delta was still predominant.

The team examined the clinical health outcomes of pediatric patients during a 14-day window after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among the factors they reviewed were: emergency room visits, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and use of mechanical ventilation.

Further analyzes of demographic data revealed that omicron-infected children were, on average, younger (1.5 vs. 1.7 years of age) and had fewer comorbidities.

“The main conclusion of our research was that there were many more children infected by omicron compared to delta, but infected children are not impacted as severely as children infected by the delta variant. However, as there are many more children infected, our hospitals were affected during the winter months by an influx of young children, “explains one of the people in charge of the investigation, Pamela Davis.