Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis
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Italy is one of the most exposed countries worldwide to COVID-19, and Lombardy is the most affected region in Italy. In this context, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo in Pavia, one of the largest University hospitals in the region, has been involved in the management of the outbreak since its inception. Immediately after the communication of the first Italian COVID-19+ patient, the Pediatric Unit has been completely reorganized to face the approaching outbreak. The optimization of the Pediatric Unit resources for COVID-19 emergency is reported as an example to safely preserve health activity during the pandemic.
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Emerging and re-emerging viruses represent an important challenge for global public health. In the 1960s, coronaviruses (CoVs) were recognized as disease agents in humans. In only two decades, three strains of CoVs have crossed species barriers rapidly emerging as human pathogens resulting in life-threatening disease with a pandemic potential: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2002, Middle-East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 and the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2. ⋯ Most of the documented infections belong to family clusters, so the importance of children in transmitting the virus remains uncertain. Like in SARS and MERS infection, there is the possibility that children are not an important reservoir for novel CoVs and this may have important implications for school attendance. While waiting for an effective against SARS-CoV-2, further prevalence studies in paediatric age are needed, in order to clarify the role of children in different age groups in the spread of the infection.
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As the COVID 19 pandemic develops across the globe, a large amount of literature has been written about the different ways in which we can diagnose and investigate someone suspected of being infected with the new coronavirus. Many approaches highlight the importance of using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) used in conjunction with computed tomography (CT) scans. ⋯ Additionally, RT-PCR testing can have significant rates of false negatives, indicating the importance of taking a more comprehensive diagnostic approach. Here, we aim to review and analyse this literature to compare RT-PCR, serum inflammatory biomarkers, chest radiographs, ultrasound and chest CT scanning as methods of diagnosing COVID 19, particularly in asymptomatic patients.
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COVID-19 first presented in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019. Since then, it has rapidly spread across the world, and is now formally considered a pandemic. As of 4th of May more than 3.2 million people have been infected and over 250,000 people has died. ⋯ To date, more than 9,000 academic papers have been published since December 2019. The quality of publications varies from a plane letter to editor to randomized studies. This review aims to analyse the current published literature related to COVID-19 and assess the quality of such articles.
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Kawasaki disease is an acute systemic febrile illness of unknown aetiology, which usually affects children under 5 years of age. It is well known that Kawasaki disease is one of the most common causes of acquired heart diseases in children in the developed countries. Many studies, have suggested that heterogeneous infectious agents, such as common viruses, may trigger Kawasaki disease in young children with genetic background. Nowadays we are facing a pandemic caused by a Novel Coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2. Consequently, it could be possible that once exposed to this new coronavirus, some children, genetically predisposed, may mount an exaggerated inflammatory response which clinically manifests as Kawasaki Disease. ⋯ Usually, infants and children present milder symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 disease with a better outcome than adults. At variance, some children may be genetically disposed to a more robust inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2, similar to Kawasaki disease. In fact, Kawasaki disease is the result of an abnormal immune response, in susceptible children, to an external trigger such as an infection. Thus, according to the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease, paediatricians may expect an increase in cases of Kawasaki disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.