Pediatric Crimean–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a zoonotic disease that is mainly transmitted by tick bites. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a change of notifications has been reported for most infectious diseases. We aimed to compare CCHF in pediatric patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and before the pandemic period with demographic, clinical, and laboratory features.

Methods Overall, 18 CCHF patients were evaluated and divided into two groups: those admitted from May 2014 to February 2020 were placed in the “prepandemic” group and those admitted from March 2020 to August 2021 were placed in the “pandemic” group. Patients were diagnosed as CCHF with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody positivity in the blood samples.

Results Pediatric CCHF cases were more frequent during the 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic period compared with the 6 years before the pandemic (10 cases and 8 cases, respectively). There were no demographic and clinically significant differences between the two groups. Prepandemic patients had lower platelet (PLT) levels than pandemic patients (p = 0.021). Two CCHF patients in the pandemic group were hospitalized with a preliminary diagnosis of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Seventeen patients (94.4%) were treated with ribavirin. All the patients recovered.

Conclusion The frequency of CCHF appeared to have been increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. But there was no difference between the prepandemic and pandemic groups from a demographic and clinical finding point of view of patients diagnosed with CCHF.

Keywords

children - COVID-19 pandemic - Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever - pediatric

Publication History

Received: 04 December 2022

Accepted: 08 July 2023

Article published online:
10 August 2023

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