IMAC WCTO Symposium

1

A/Professor Tony WallsPaediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist

CoVID -19 in children

• This is not influenza or SARS

• The severity of disease and the transmission dynamics are very different in children

CoVID-19 in children

• NZ and global epidemiology

• Is it safe for children to be in schools?– Transmission dynamics

• What do parents think?

CoVID-19 in NZ children

• No hospital admissions

• Age 0-10yrs – 10 confirmed, 27 probable

• Age 10-14yrs– 29 confirmed, 18 probable

Medical students visited Te Pa o Rakaihautu

MMRW March 18 2020

Otto et al JPIDS June 2020

NZ school clusters

• No clusters in pre-schools or primary schools

• Logan Park High School– No transmission in school

• Marist cluster– Mostly adult cases– Index cases teachers– Only 1 case of child-child

transmission

• 18 individuals with CoVID-19 from 15 schools• 735 students and 128 staff close contacts• No adult contacted disease from a child

COVID-19 in schools – the experience in NSW | April 2020 Report

Cases and contacts among teachers and students in 5 NSW primary schools

COVID-19 in schools – the experience in NSW | April 2020 Report

79% thought it likely/very likely that their child would catch CoVID-19 at school if widespread community transmission

14.5% extremely/very worried about their children catching CoVID-19 just prior to schools opening

NZ Herald Oct 2017

Latin miser – unhappy, pitiable, wretched, in distress

National coverage 2007 - 2011

50

55

60

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100

July 2007 July 2008 July 2009 July 2010 July 2011 July 2012

Year

Cove

rage

Annual targets

Immunisation coverage Canterbury

Number of measles notifications by month reported,January 2009 to June 2019

Who gets measles?

NZ cases January – April 2019

Pertussis in infants

Most severe disease in the youngest infants27

This is your baby’s first vaccine

?

Pertussis vaccine in pregnancy

• Passive immunity for babies at birth

• Most protection early in life

• 93% effective in preventing hospital admissions first 3 months