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Ebola Death Rates Vary Widely by Age Group

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Young children who are infected with Ebola may be more likely to die from the virus than older children or adults who are infected, according to a new study.

 In the study, researchers examined Ebola cases in children younger than 16 during the current outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and compared them with adult cases. They found that the outbreak's death rate has been higher among younger children than among older children and adults.

The disease has killed about 90 percent of infected children under age 1, and about 80 percent of kids ages 1 to 4 who have been infected. Older children who have been infected with Ebola may have a much better chance of surviving....

"The very youngest of children — neonates  —appear to have the worst outcomes from Ebola," study co-author Dr. Robert Fowler, an associate professor of critical-care medicine at the University of Toronto, said in a statement. (Neonates, or newborns, are babies younger than 1 month.)

There are a number of factors that may explain the high Ebola mortality rate in newborns, Fowler said. For instance, the youngest children are often heavily dependent on others to care for them, and their caregivers may have also been sick with Ebola. Younger kids may also be particularly prone to dehydration and metabolic abnormalities that result from vomiting and diarrhea, which are common symptoms of the disease.

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http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-death-rates-vary-widely-age-group-223154533.html;_ylt=AwrBEiQTXxNVIToAXP_QtDMD

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nejm.org - N Engl J Med 2015; 372:1274-1277 | March 26, 2015 | DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1415318

Here we investigate the progression and outcome of EVD in confirmed and probable pediatric cases reported from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, stratified according to age. The absolute and per capita case incidence of EVD among children younger than 16 years of age has been significantly and consistently lower than the incidence among adults in all three countries.  This pattern is similar to that observed in past EVD outbreaks.  However, because the current epidemic is so large, it provides an opportunity to explore the ways in which epidemiologic and clinical parameters vary according to age. Although the age distribution of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases is similar in all three countries, the proportion of pediatric cases (those younger than 16 years of age) among all cases increased over the course of 2014.

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