Perhaps you have never heard of the “croup“, but it has other names, sometimes more eccentric “seal’s cough”, sometimes more classic: laryngitis. American doctors from Boston Children’s Hospital have recently alerted to an epidemic of croup in children with Omicronas revealed in their article published in the journal Pediatrics.
Concretely, the symptoms are as follows: fever, diarrhoea, general fatigue, and a breathing that would evoke the sound that the seal makes (acute, therefore), accompanied by coughing. What American doctors say is that 75 children consulted for these symptoms and tested positive for Covid-19, more than 80% had the Omicron variant. Ordinarily, they estimate that this results in 5% of hospitalizations, against 12% observed in recent times. Omicron would therefore cause more severe forms of laryngitis than usual in children.
In France, Public Health France does not report a warning signal to this symptom.
Do not panic
In fact, according to several specialists, there is nothing really surprising, since Omicron affects the upper tract more (and less lungs than its predecessors). Remember that’s also why Omicron is less harsh than Delta.
“It is a microsignal, according to Dr. Robert Cohen, president of the Pediatrics Professional Council. This parallel between Omicron and croup is not surprising because the variant affects the upper tract more than the lungs, but there is no fire in the lake. Nothing to do with PIMSmuch more characteristic of SARS-CoV-2″, he explains to the newspaper Le Parisien.
In addition, if the two can be linked, and follow each other (croup can happen after Omicron), it is difficult to say because not all children are tested (in France at least), the flu epidemic could also be responsible. At any rate, treating laryngitis is relatively easy. In the most severe cases, corticosteroids and aerosols may be prescribed.
Sources:
- COVID-19-Associated Croup in Children, Pediatrics, March 8, 2022.
- Le Parisien, March 19, 2022.
Read also:
- Covid-19: the virus would not be transmitted so easily by the hands
- Why do children have fewer severe forms of Covid-19?
- Covid: “The epidemic is not over”, warns the Scientific Council
