Introduction
Coronaviruses (CoVs) are the single-chain, positive-stranded and
enveloped RNA viruses that related to human disease had been determined
(1). The virus responsible for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is
located under the Sarbecovirus subspecies in the genus betacoronavirus,
which it contains in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus
(SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
The new nomenclature of the virus has been accepted as severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (2).
Among the coronaviruses causing disease in humans, HCoV 229E, NL63,
OC43, and HKU1 are the most frequently isolated. Despite all of the
coronaviruses can infect subjects of all ages, these subtypes are the
cause of endemics of upper respiratory tract infections in adults.
However, many coronavirus subtypes can cause severe disease settings in
humans (3, 4, 5).
Coronaviruses are capable of mutation leading to novel CoVs that can be
transmitted from animals to humans. At first, SARS-CoV is transmitted
from bearcats to humans in 2002 and resulted hundreds of people to lose
their lives in 37 countries. After 10 years, in 2012 MERS-CoV, was first
described in humans which was transmitted from dromedary camels to
humans and caused 858 fatalities (6, 7).
In December 2019, the novel SARS-CoV-2 was reported in Wuhan, China.
After this date, the number of patients increased rapidly, and the
disease was observed common all over the world. A number of studies of
the total burden of novel COVID-19 have demonstrated that, although
generally more dangerous in adults at risk of COVID-19 related
complications because of chronic underlying diseases such as
cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes (8).
COVID-19 is also seen common in otherwise healthy children, a
considerable number of whom experience severe disease leading to
hospitalisation, increased outpatient visits and pharmaceutical
medication prescriptions, and (although rarely) even death (9). The
first COVID-19 infected child patient in the world was reported from
Shenzen on January 20, 2020 (10).
The management of the disease is not very clear and no reliability and
effectiveness-proven treatment are yet available for COVID-19. The drugs
used to treat it frequently cause adverse effects. Although there are
previous studies on possible prognostic drugs in the treatment of
pediatric COVID-19, there is no consensus for treatment (11-17).
To our knowledge, there is no major published study on pediatric
COVID-19 in Turkish children. Therefore, in our study, we aimed to
evaluate the clinical, radiological and laboratory features of the
disease in Turkish children. Another objective of this retrospective
study was to compare the pediatric COVID-19 disease characteristic in
Turkey to those found in other countries. In our study, we also aimed to
identify risk factors associated with coronavirus in Turkish children.