Please note this section is intended for medical professionals who look after critically ill children.
If you are a parent or carer please be assured that serious illness as a result of COVID 19 still appears to be a very rare event in children. If your child is unwell then please seek medical attention in the usual way as set out in guidance from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2020-04/covid19_advice_for_parents_when_child_unwell_or_injured_poster.pdf
PICANet Report on COVID-19 confirmed cases admitted to Paediatric Intensive Care
PICANet first published a report on the 23rd June 2020 relating to children with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis treated in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) within the UK. This report was subsequently updated and re-published 12th of November 2020 and now again 8th July 2021.
Please click here to access the previous July 2021 published COVID-19 report
Please click here to access the previous November 2020 published COVID-19 report
Please click here to access the original June 2020 published COVID-19 report
COVID-19 real time reporting via PICANet
At the request of the Paediatric Critical Care Society and the NHS, PICANet developed a system of real time reporting of clinically suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 and PIMS-TS within paediatric intensive care units to assist with the central monitoring of the numbers of cases. This data collection took place in UK PICUs from April 2020 and ended on 4th June 2023.
COVID-19 Customised Data Collection
In order to further support understanding of COVID-19 and better describe its presentation and treatment provided within paediatric intensive care units, PICANet developed the first COVID-19 Customised Data Collection in May 2020 (v 1.1) in collaboration with the Clinical Advisory Group and Paediatric Intensive Care Society to collect data on those children (<18 years) found to be COVID-19 positive.
From the 7th December 2020, this was extended to collect data on those children clinically diagnosed with paediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome temporally associated with COVID-19 (PIMS-TS), confirmed by the absence of another cause, who may also have a positive COVID-19 PCR test.
A second revised version, COVID-19 II Customised Data Collection v1.0, was devised in December 2021 with input from clinicians. The COVID-19 II data collection differs from the first version in that the section on testing and sampling for COVID-19 is removed, and an additional collection of data items regarding PIMS-TS and potential COVID-19 vaccine related complications have been added.
The COVID-19 II Customised Data Collection was updated in February 2022 (v2.0) to capture vaccine information for all PICU admissions meeting the criteria for inclusion in the COVID-19 II Custom Data Collection rather than only those in the Potential COVID-19 vaccine related complications cohort.
In October 2022 the COVID-19 II Customised Data Collection v2.1 was expanded to include those children with COVID-19 confirmed by lateral flow device (LFD) as well as PCR test in response to changes in testing practice.
The COVID-19 II customised data collection form and a data definitions manual are available to download to support completion of the data.
Recording of COVID-19 and PIMS-TS for transport events
For details of how to record COVID-19 and PIMS-TS for transport events please see the guidance note here.
If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact the PICANet Team via email picanet@leeds.ac.uk