COVID-19 significant cause of death in US children: study

COVID-19 was the underlying cause of over 1,300 deaths in children and young people aged 0 to 19 years in the US and its true burden in this age group is still unclear, a new study reported.

The study was led by researchers at the University of Oxford's Department of Computer Science using data from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention databases, covering a period from Aug 1, 2021 to July 31, 2022.

According to the findings of the study, COVID-19 ranked first in deaths caused by infectious or respiratory diseases among children and young people aged 0 to 19 years in the US, and the underlying cause for 2 percent of deaths in children and young people (800 out of 43,000), ahead of influenza and pneumonia.

"These results demonstrate that while it's rare for kids and teens to die in the US, COVID-19 is now the leading underlying cause of death from infectious disease for this age group," said associate professor Seth Flaxman, lead author of the study.

The study found deaths in children and young people were higher during the Delta and Omicron waves compared to waves before July 2021.

"Deaths from COVID-19 have continued to be significant in children, even during the Omicron era," said associate professor Deepti Gurdasani of the University of New South Wales' Kirby Institute, a fellow co-author of the study.

Co-author Oliver Ratmann from the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London said: "We show that COVID-19 was a top-ten leading cause of death in children in 2021-22 and the leading cause of death in children from any infectious disease. So, COVID-19 is far from a harmless infection in children."