A Leading Cause of Death among People in the U.S.A. is COVID-19

Over 940,000 fatalities in the US were attributed to COVID-19, including more than 1,300 deaths of infants and teenagers ages 0 to 19. Up until this point, it has been difficult to compare the burden of COVID-19 fatalities with those from other major causes of mortality in this age range.

• COVID-19 was the eighth-leading cause of mortality among children and adolescents in the US between August 2021 and July 2022.
• In the same time frame, COVID-19 was the infectious illness that killed the most children.
• During the Delta and Omicron waves, COVID-19 deaths among youngsters were at their greatest in the US.
• The highest at risk group was infants less than one year, with a COVID-19 mortality rate of 4 per 100,000.
• Pharmaceutical and public health measures are still crucial for preventing the spread of the virus and reducing the severity of illness in this age range.

In the US, COVID-19 was the primary factor in the deaths of over 940,000 individuals, including over 1,300 fatalities of infants and teenagers ages 0 to 19. It was unknown up until this point how the burden of fatalities from COVID-19 compared to other major causes of mortality in this age range.

Using information from databases maintained by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a recent study directed by academics at Oxford University’s Department of Computer Science examined this. The findings have just been released in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Important findings during the research period, which ran from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022:

• COVID-19 was the leading cause of infectious or respiratory illness-related fatalities among children and adolescents in the US aged 0 to 19 years. It also ranked sixth overall among causes of death attributed to disease.
• By age group, COVID-19 placed seventh (for babies), seventh (for children ages 1-4), sixth (5-9), sixth (10-14), and fifth (15–19-year-olds).
• COVID-19 was the primary factor in 2% of fatalities among children and adolescents (800 out of 43,000), with a mortality rate of 1.0 per 100,000 for those in the 0–19 age group overall. COVID-19 outranked influenza and pneumonia, which together had a mortality rate of 0.6 per 100,000; the top cause of death (perinatal disorders) had an overall death rate of 12.7 per 100,000.
• Like many illnesses, COVID-19 mortality rates varied by age in a U-shaped pattern. Infants under one year old had the highest COVID-19 mortality rates (4.3 per 100,000), those between the ages of 15 and 19 had the second-highest rates (1.8 per 100,000), and children between the ages of 5 and 9 had the lowest rates (0.4 per 100,000).
• In general, the Delta and Omicron waves saw more child and adolescent mortality than earlier waves (before to July 2021), which is probably due to the greater infection rates during these times. Nevertheless, COVID-19 was the eighth most common cause of death overall in the pre-Delta phase of the pandemic.
• With 160 deaths, January 2022 was the month with the highest number of COVID-19-related mortality among 0 to 19-year-olds.

This research focuses on deaths that were specifically brought on by COVID-19 rather than deaths where COVID-19 was a contributory factor, despite the fact that COVID-19 exacerbates the effects of other illnesses (such as pneumonia and influenza). Therefore, it is probable that the real impact of COVID-19-related mortality in this age range is underestimated by our data.

The total risk of mortality from COVID-19 was much lower in children and adolescents as compared to other age groups. For instance, the US COVID-19 death rate for all ages was 109 per 100,000 between 1 August 2021 and 31 July 2022. However, because child and adolescent fatalities are uncommon in the US, it is essential to understand the mortality burden of COVID-19 in relation to all other causes of death.

The findings, in the opinion of the researchers, point to the fact that public health measures, such as vaccinations, staying home when ill, and ventilation, still have a significant role to play in preventing the spread of COVID-19 variants and preventing severe illness in children and young adults.

The study’s lead author, Associate Professor Seth Flaxman (Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford), said: “These results show that COVID-19 is now the main underlying cause of infectious disease death for this age group, even though it’s uncommon for children and teenagers to pass away in the US. More than 1,300 children and young people have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic, the majority in the last two years, as a result of the 82 million American children and young people who were infected during the large Delta and Omicron waves. Fortunately, we now have a wide range of efficient risk-reduction methods, including safe immunizations, air purifiers, and building ventilation. Communities can dramatically reduce the severity of infection and serious

As one of the study’s co-authors and an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Robbie M. Parks said: “If you look at infectious diseases in children historically in the US, in the era before vaccines became available, hepatitis A, rotavirus, rubella, and measles were all major causes of death. This shows how seriously we need to take COVID-19 prevention and mitigation measures for the youngest age groups in the US and around the world. However, when we compared those diseases to COVID-19, we discovered that COVID-19 caused significantly more deaths in children and young people than those other diseases did before vaccines were available.

The study’s other co-author, Associate Professor Deepti Gurdasani of the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, stated: “It is evident that COVID-19 is a substantial cause of mortality in children, being the most common infectious illness to kill children. Sadly, even throughout the Omicron period, COVID-19 mortality in children have remained a severe problem. Along with accessible immunization to lower the risk of serious disease, we need mitigations (such as ventilation and air cleansing) to protect children from infection.