Title
The Spectrum and Burden of COVID-19-Associated Neurologic Disease in Australian Children 2020-2023.
Author(s)
DuBray, Kara
Phan, Katherine
Anglemyer, Andrew
Burell, Rebecca
Blyth, Christopher C
Carr, Jeremy
Clark, Julia E
Crawford, Nigel W
Marshall, Helen
McMullan, Brendan J
Waak, Michaela
Dale, Russell C
Jones, Cheryl A
Carey, Emma
Macartney, Kristine
Wood, Nicholas
Britton, Philip N
Abstract
We aimed to describe the clinical spectrum and burden of COVID-19-associated neurologic disease in Australian children.We extracted Australian national sentinel site surveillance data on COVID-19-associated neurologic disease in children hospitalized in the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance network, 2020-2023. Neurologic complications included encephalitis, encephalopathy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, seizures and cerebrovascular accident among others. We calculated the proportion of hospitalized pediatric COVID-19 cases associated with neurologic disease and described the spectrum of presentations including clinical features and severity. We calculated incidence rates of neurologic disease within COVID-19 variant eras among hospitalized patients.We identified 311 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection with neurologic disease among 4616 hospitalized pediatric cases of COVID-19 reported through the surveillance network, representing 5.3 cases per 100 pediatric COVID-19 admissions. The most common COVID-19-associated neurologic presentations were seizures (n = 215), including febrile seizures. Nonspecific encephalopathy (n = 62), encephalitis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, acute cerebellar syndromes, acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis and cerebrovascular accident were also reported. Almost 60% of children were ≤4 years, approximately 30% had pre-existing neurologic conditions and almost half had other medical comorbidities. COVID-19-associated neurologic complications infrequently led to death, although 25% (n = 2/8) of children with COVID-19 encephalitis died. The incidence rate of COVID-19-associated neurologic disease was lowest during the late Omicron era.Neurologic complications among COVID-19 hospitalized children are relatively frequent. While most neurologic complications are transient, including seizures, encephalitis remains a cause of significant morbidity. Children with pre-existing neurologic disease and other comorbidities are at higher risk.
Publication information
Pediatr Infect Dis J . 2025 Apr 10. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004830. Online ahead of print.
Date Issued
2025-04-10
Type
Journal Article
Journal Title
The Pediatric infectious disease journal
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