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Omicron caused spike in breathing condition in babies and toddlers, study finds - Ars Technica

Omicron caused spike in breathing condition in babies and toddlers, study finds - Ars Technica

Omicron caused spike in breathing condition in babies and toddlers, study finds - Ars Technica
May 17, 2022 1 min, 11 secs

The omicron coronavirus variant caused a spike in cases of a potentially severe breathing condition in babies and toddlers, according to a hospital study recently published in the journal Pediatrics.

Before the omicron wave, COVID-19 was associated with croup in some children, but it didn’t appear to be a common outcome of the pandemic infection.

That changed during the omicron wave when healthcare providers reported they saw more COVID-19 associated croup cases in young patients.

They only found 75 cases—but 61 of the cases (81 percent) occurred during the roughly month-and-a-half time frame of the omicron wave, from December 4, 2021, to January 15, 2022.

Prior to omicron, only 14 COVID-19-associated croup cases appeared from March 2020 to the start of December 2021, usually with no more than one case in a week.

But at the height of Massachusetts' omicron surge at the start of 2022, COVID-19-associated croup peaked at around two dozen cases in one week.

The researchers also noted that the cases of COVID-19-associated croup, largely seen in the omicron period, appeared to skew to more severe croup than what's seen in cases caused by other viral infections.

The COVID-19-associated croup caused more hospitalizations and required more re-dosing of treatments than expected, the researchers report.

Although the Massachusetts study is limited by its small size and single location, the authors argue that it offers compelling preliminary evidence that omicron infections cause croup, sometimes severe croup, and the topic warrants further research.

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