Diarrhoea and vomiting may be key sign of coronavirus in children: Study

New Delhi : Diarrhoea and vomiting could be an important sign of Covid-19 in children, according to a new research.

The report published in The Guardian says, checklist for coronavirus in children currently includes three symptoms, a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change to the sense of smell or taste. The latter was added to the list in May.

Now researchers at Queen’s University Belfast say they have confirmed that an upset stomach is a symptom of Covid-19 in children, and revealed it appears to be a key sign of the disease.

“In our group, diarrhoea and vomiting were more predictive than, say, cough or even changes in smell and taste,” said Dr Tom Waterfield, the first author of the research. “If you want to actually diagnose infection in children, we need to start looking at diarrhoea and vomiting, not just upper respiratory tract symptoms.”

Waterfield said that going by the current three recognised symptoms, testing symptomatic children would identify 76% of cases, assuming a perfectly accurate test, while adding gastrointestinal symptoms to the checklist would bring the figure to 97%.

The study took place between 6 April and 3 July and involved more than 990 children of healthcare workers from across the UK aged between two and 15. None had been admitted to hospital with Covid-19.

All had a blood sample taken, which was tested for antibodies to coronavirus, and data was also gathered on whether they had experienced any symptoms – crucially this was done before antibody results were revealed.

The team found that 68 children – 6.9% of the total – had antibodies for the disease, suggesting they had had Covid-19, and half of these reported having had symptoms.

Some symptoms were particularly common, with 31% of the 68 children reporting fever, 18% reporting headache and 19% reporting gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps. For children without antibodies the figures were 11%, 4% and 3% respectively.

Waterfield said the findings were important, not least as diarrhoea and vomiting were clear and obvious problems to spot.

He said the study should also reassure parents. “Lots of children will have a running nose this winter and sneezing – that is not a sign,” he said.

Prof Tim Spector, of King’s College London, said the findings chimed with research by his team. “Our data on nearly 250,000 children from the Covid symptom study app suggest that children who test positive have a wide range of symptoms and that a cough is not as common in children as it is adults,” he said.