Washington. – Covid-19 was the eighth leading cause of death among children and young people in the United States between August 2021 and July 2022 and the first of those who died from an infectious or respiratory disease, according to a study published this Monday by the University of Oxford. .
The possibility of dying from covid-19 is substantially lower among children and young people up to 19 years of age than among other age groups, but during this period it became the leading cause of death due to infectious and respiratory disease.
This is reflected in the new study by the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, which used data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Covid-19 accounted for 2% of deaths in the population between 0 and 19 years of age, ahead of influenza and pneumonia, with a mortality rate of 1 death per 100,000 children and young people, positioning itself as the eighth leading cause of death in this group.
Currently, the leading cause of death among children and young people in the US are conditions arising from the perinatal period, followed by accidents, congenital malformations, homicides, suicides, cancer, and heart disease.
Death of children and young people
By age group, covid-19 was the seventh leading cause of death among children 1-4 years old, the sixth among 5-14-year-olds, and rose to fifth among adolescents 15-19.
Babies under 1 year of age were the most vulnerable, with a covid-19 mortality rate of 4 per 100,000 infants.
Deaths increased during the delta and omicron waves, with the highest death toll in January 2022.
“If you look at the infectious diseases of children in the US historically, in the period before vaccines were available, hepatitis A, rotavirus, rubella and measles were the leading causes of death,” he says. associate professor and study co-author Robbie M. Parks.
But when these diseases are compared with covid-19, the latter “caused substantially more deaths in children and young people; than those other diseases before vaccines were available.”
According to the researchers, the results suggest that vaccination and prevention play an important role in the transmission of the virus and its mitigation in children and young people.
