The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on children: a holistic perspective

Abstract

Throughout history, different epidemic outbreaks have been documented, such as the bubonic plague, the Spanish flu, swine flu, Ebola, amongst other diseases that hit the whole world and generated a high impact from economic, political, and health perspectives. All of this has led to the creation of new public policies that contribute to the control of the spread of these pathologies, which affect communities regardless of age, sex, or ethnic group. For this reason, it is important to bear in mind the role that COVID-19 has had in our society from a pediatric viewpoint. 

Before addressing key matters in this population, we need knowledge on this pathology and its development on a national and global level. COVID-19 is classified in the Coronaviridae family virus group, in the Orthocoronavirinae sub-family, within which four genres stand out, identified as Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus, Gammacoronavirus and Deltacoronavirus. Within this group, it has been shown that Alfacoronavirus and Betacoronavirus are responsible for infection in mammals, of which six subtypes have been described as roots of the disease in humans: HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43 and HKU1 (2).