A Comparative Study On The Risk Of Seizure In Children During The Delta And The Omicron variants of SARS-COV-2 Infection

Introduction: Children with Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) usually have a mild form of the disease. The clinical manifestations vary depending on the variant of the virus. Few case reports of seizures were also reported in pediatrics population.

Aim of the study : To determine the probability of seizures in children infected with the delta variant and the Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a tertiary care centre in South India.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional record-based review was conducted at MOSC Medical College Kolenchery, a tertiary care referral centre in all children admitted with SARS-COV-19 in the age group between 2 months to 18 years, . Two separate record-based analysis was done during the peak of Delta variant (second wave - Between 1st April 2022 and 20th December 2021) and the peak of Omicron SARS-CoV-2 (third wave – Between 28th December 2022 – 15th March 2022) in Kerala India.

Result : A total of 47 children were admitted during the second wave with SARS-COV-19 infection, of which 14 (29.7%) had seizures, with an odds ratio of 3.01 [1.6, 5.98]. While in the second wave there were 88 COVID19 infections over a period of 2 months and 34 (38%) had seizures, with an odds ratio of 7.26 [3.67, 14.33].

Conclusion : It was observed that the risk of seizures with Omicron SARS-CoV-2 was extremely high in children than when compared with the Delta SARS-CoV-2. One major limitation of this study was not taking the confounding factors into consideration