A joint research by experts over at Imperial College London and World Health Organization (WHO) has established that Ebola is more deadly for children under five with the death rate at 90 per cent in case of children aged one or less and 80 per cent in case of kids aged between one and five.
Researchers based their findings on data analysis of Ebola cases in children under 16 during the current outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, comparing them to cases in adults. The results show that although the rate of infection is lower in children than adults, young children who get the disease have a lower chance of surviving it.
According to official statistics from WHO, nearly 4,000 children under 16 have been affected by Ebola as of March 2015 in the current epidemic. This number accounts for a fifth of all confirmed and probable cases of Ebola in the current outbreak.
According to researchers, Ebola has affected young children most severely, killing around 90 per cent of children aged under a year and around 80 per cent of children aged one to four years who are infected. As far as older children are concerned, they are much more likely to survive the disease as it has been found that the virus has killed 52 per cent of children infected aged 10 to 15. For adults aged 16 to 44, the case fatality rate is 65 per cent.
The incubation period – the time between becoming infected and showing symptoms – was 6.9 days in children under a year, compared with 9.8 days in children aged 10 to 15. Younger children also had shorter times from the onset of symptoms to hospitalisation and death.
There were also differences in the symptoms experienced by children. Children were more likely to have a fever when they first see a doctor, and less likely to have pain in the abdomen, chest, joints, or muscles; difficulty breathing or swallowing; or hiccups.
Professor Christl Donnelly, from the Medical Research Council Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial College London and a co-author of the study, said that their findings indicate that the virus affects children quite differently than adults and this calls for a quick treatment. Donnelly added that it also needs to be checked whether young children are getting treatment that’s appropriate for their age.
Dr Chris Dye, head of WHO’s Ebola epidemiology team in Geneva and a co-author of the study, added that the findings emphasise that kids are at a greater risk of deaths and that they need the highest quality medical care.
The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
