Article ID: JJID.2021.019
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia in children characteristically has a milder clinical presentation, with milder inflammatory biomarkers and radiological findings. Accumulating evidence indicates a difference in chest computed tomography (CT) features and duration of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) shedding between children and adults. Here, we report a family case of COVID-19 pneumonia in which two brothers (age 14 years and 2 years) had different findings. On admission, the 2-year-old had few symptoms with no sign of pneumonia, whereas the older brother had presented with pneumonia on admission. Both were positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection on polymerase chain reaction. They both had obvious characteristic signs of COVID-19 pneumonia on chest CT. However, CT findings in the younger brother were non-specific and similar to other pneumonias. The older brother required longer treatment because of a longer shedding period of SARS-CoV-2 detected in nasopharyngeal samples. Both boys were discharged without complications. This family case suggests that the clinical features of COVID-19 pneumonia might differ between younger and older children.
