A 16-year-old girl died of coronavirus in France, we learned on Thursday March 26. If the health authorities point out that “in the vast majority of cases”, the disease “is not serious for the youngest”, this drama raises some questions.
“This drama reminds us if necessary that the coronavirus is a serious disease and that containment measures are essential”. Thursday March 26, during his press briefing, Jérôme Salomon, the Director General of Health, for the first time, mentioned a specific case, that of a 16-year-old girl who died after contracting Covid-19. It is currently the youngest victim of the disease in France. “I deplore this evening, and it is extremely sad, the death of a young girl whose details I will withhold in the name of medical secrecy.he said, recalling however that “in the vast majority of cases“, disease “doesn’t matter for younger kids”. Nevertheless, this drama raises some questions.
What symptoms did the girl suffer from?
About a week ago Julie started coughing. A small benign cough, tells his mother to the press. Then, last Saturday, the girl began to feel slight shortness of breath. Coughing spells follow. Monday, March 23, her mother takes her to a general practitioner who finds an “acceptable” respiratory deficiency. The firefighters then take the young girl, equipped with a paper mask under her oxygen mask, to the hospital. The patient is tested for Covid-19. During the night, her respiratory failure worsened and she was transferred to the Necker hospital for children in Paris. On Tuesday 24, she was admitted to intensive care. When her mother visits her, she tells her that her heart hurts. Two new tests are carried out at Necker, the results come back negative. Later in the evening, the mother is called: the result of the first test has just come in: Julie is positive for Covid-19. Her condition is deteriorating a little more, she must be intubated. When her mother arrives at the hospital around 1 a.m. on Wednesday 25, the unfortunate woman is already dead. She was the victim of a severe form of the “extremely rare” virus in young people.
Did she suffer from other comorbidities?
Thursday evening, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran returned to this tragedy, evoking a “trauma for the resuscitation teams who took care of this young patient”. However, he did not specify whether the young girl suffered from other pathologies which would have weakened her. Faced with questions from the press, the Directorate General of Health, for its part, took refuge behind medical secrecy. “You will obviously understand that I cannot give more detailssaid Jérôme Salomon, adding that he wanted to make this information public for the sake of transparency. Young and old alike must take precautions”, he insisted. In her story to AFP, Julie’s mother did not mention any particular pathology. At last, BMTV ensures to know that the young girl did not present “no comorbidities”.
A few days ago, the director of the WHO called young people to pay attention to Covid-19. “Today I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus can put you in the hospital for weeks and even kill you. Even if you don’t get sick, the choices you make in your travels can be a matter of life or death for someone else”he said during an online press conference from Geneva in Switzerland.
Remember that in the United Kingdom, a 21-year-old young woman, “without health problem”, according to the British press, succumbed to illness on Tuesday.
What proportion of minors in the number of cases detected positive for Covid-19?
The country where it all started, China served as a working base to assess the risks for young people. On February 24, the results of a study carried out by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on a sample of 72,314 Chinese were published, including 44,672 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 16,186 suspected cases and 10,567 diagnosed cases. Of the 44,672 confirmed cases, only 1% were respectively under 10 years old (416 cases) and between 10 and 19 years old (549 cases).
How many serious cases among young people?
According to the same Chinese study, 80% of patients who died from Covid-19 were over 60 years old. Until the age of 39, the mortality rate remained very low, at 0.2%. It then increased gradually with age.
In France, cases of serious contamination among young people are almost zero. “To my knowledge, so far, in the Paris region in any case, there are no severe pediatric cases, including among those who have chronic illnesses or are more fragile. Today, I want to reassure parents, there are very, very few risks”assured a few days ago Rémi Salomon, head of the pediatric nephrology department at the Necker hospital and president of the medical commission for the establishment of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), at the World.
“A death at 16 from Covid-19 is exceptional. This has been known to happen from time to time with other viral epidemics, such as the flu. In our infectiology departments, for the coronavirus, we sometimes see people in their forties, but not young people. At least not for the momentexplains Professor Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, head of the infectiology department at the Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil (Val-de-Marne), at the Parisian. It is unclear whether Chinese scientists have really told us everything about the virus. We have to learn as we go. One thing is certain, young people, like the not so young, must take their precautions and stay confined, it’s the safest thing to do”he concludes.
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