Study Says Diarrhea, Vomiting May Be Key Signs of Coronavirus in Children

By Staff, Agencies

Diarrhea and vomiting could be an important sign of Covid-19 in children, researchers said, leading to calls for the official NHS list of symptoms to be updated.

The checklist for coronavirus in children currently includes just three symptoms: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change to the sense of smell or taste. The latter was added to the list in May.

A number of studies in adults have flagged symptoms including muscle pain, fatigue, confusion, chest pains and stomach trouble. Among them, a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study by researchers at King’s College London, based on data from the Covid symptom study app, found that symptoms fall into six main clusters in adults, one of them being mainly gastrointestinal problems.

Now researchers at Queen’s University Belfast say they have confirmed that an upset stomach is a symptom of Covid-19 in children, and revealed it appears to be a key sign of the disease.

“In our group, diarrhea and vomiting were more predictive than, say, cough or even changes in smell and taste,” said Dr. Tom Waterfield, the first author of the research. “If you want to actually diagnose infection in children, we need to start looking at diarrhea and vomiting, not just upper respiratory tract symptoms.”

Waterfield said that going by the current three recognized symptoms, testing symptomatic children would identify 76% of cases, assuming a perfectly accurate test, while adding gastrointestinal symptoms to the checklist would bring the figure to 97%.

The study took place between 6 April and 3 July and involved more than 990 children of healthcare workers from across the UK aged between two and 15. None had been admitted to hospital with Covid-19.

All had a blood sample taken, which was tested for antibodies to coronavirus, and data was also gathered on whether they had experienced any symptoms – crucially this was done before antibody results were revealed.

The team found that 68 children – 6.9% of the total – had antibodies for the disease, suggesting they had had Covid-19, and half of these reported having had symptoms.

Some symptoms were particularly common, with 31% of the 68 children reporting fever, 18% reporting headache and 19% reporting gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps. For children without antibodies the figures were 11%, 4% and 3% respectively.

While only 34 children were symptomatic in the study, Waterfield said the findings were important, not least as diarrhea and vomiting were clear and obvious problems to spot.