Pediatric Clinical Features of Covid-19 in Cameroon

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic is a public health emergency characterized by severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. It has many clinical forms and affects all age groups. Despite the magnitude of this pandemic, data from pediatric cohorts in Cameroon remain sparse. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the clinical presentation of Covid-19 in the pediatric population of the Nkolndongo health district. Materials and method: A cross-sectional study was conducted for a duration of 5 months from January to May 2021 and covered a period of 9 months (March to December 2020). All patients aged 0 to 19 years, suspected of having Covid-19, confirmed by real-time RT-PCR targeting the N and ORF1 ab viral genes and managed in the Nkolndongo health district were included. The results were analyzed using IBM SPSS.23.0 software and the data expressed as frequencies, percentages, and means. The threshold of statistical significance was set at 0.05. Results: This study revealed that 48 patients out of 154 suspected cases were tested positive. The most affected age group was adolescents aged 13 - 19 years (92.85%). The most frequent symptoms were cough (33%), fever (42%) and nasal discharge (25%). Infants were the least affected. 58% of patients were asymptomatic, 47.91% were in mild stage, 8.33% in moderate stage and 4.16% in severe stage. All the children tested positive survived. Patients with comorbidity were 20 times more likely to develop moderate to severe clinical forms, this being statistically significant. Conclusion: The clinical presentation reported mainly fever, cough and anterior nasal discharge. There was a significant association between the presence of comorbidity and the moderate to