Introduction
Asthma is one of the most prevalent chronic respiratory diseases in the
world. The relationship between COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus,
and asthma has not been determined in the pediatric population.
According to the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in
Childhood (ISAAC)1, the average prevalence in children
in Spain is 10.3%, a rate similar to that of the European Union.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, studies in adults have
shown a relative small number of asthmatic cases among hospitalized
patients. It has been proposed that medication (inhaled corticosteroids
or immunosuppressants) could play a protective role in asthmatic
patients2,3. Although SARS-CoV-2 infection is a
relatively mild disease in children, pediatric infections account for
10-12% of diagnoses4, and a small percentage require
hospitalization even in intensive care units, mostly due to pneumonia or
multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). However, asthma
attack is rare among SARS-CoV-2 hospitalized
children5. A history of asthma is currently a debated
risk factor for COVID-19, with few published
studies6.7. The results of Floyd et
al8 study ─among the few pediatric studies that
examined asthma as a risk factor for COVID-19─ did not demonstrate a
higher frequency of asthma among those patients hospitalized with
COVID-19, through a review of medical records.
Our objective was to study the prevalence of asthma in children with
SARS-CoV-2 infection and to compare the frequency of asthma in
hospitalized children and those with mild ambulatory symptoms.