Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome due to COVID-19 among children and adolescents in Brazil: Profile of deaths and hospital lethality as at Epidemiological Week 38, 2020

Abstract

Objective: To describe the profile of deaths and the lethality of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) due to COVID-19 in hospitalized children and adolescents in Brazil. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted with data from the SARS notification forms of children and adolescents (0 to 19 years old) with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Notifications with complete progression of SARS due to COVID-19 were included, up to the 38th Epidemiological Week of 2020. Results: 6,989 hospitalizations were investigated, 661 died, resulting in 9.5% hospital lethality. Higher lethality rates were observed among children under 1 year of age (14.2%), female children and adolescents (9.7%), the indigenous (23.0%), and those living in rural areas (18.1 %), as well as in the Northeast (15.4%) and North (9.7%) regions of Brazil. Conclusion: Differences in hospital mortality were found according to sociodemographic characteristics and marked regional inequalities.