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On 31 December 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Committee of Health and Healthcare (Hubei Province, China) reported that there were 27 cases of pneumonia of unknown origin with symptoms starting on the 8 December. There were 7 serious cases with common exposure in market with shellfish, fish, and live animals, in the city of Wuhan. On 7 January 2020, the Chinese authorities identified that the agent causing the outbreak was a new type of virus of the Coronaviridae family, temporarily called «new coronavirus», 2019-nCoV. On January 30th, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak an International Emergency. On 11 February 2020 the WHO assigned it the name of SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19). The Ministry of Health summoned the Specialties Societies to prepare a clinical protocol for the management of COVID-19. The Spanish Paediatric Association appointed a Working Group of the Societies of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Paediatric Intensive Care to prepare the present recommendations with the evidence available at the time of preparing them., (Copyright © 2020 Asociación Española de Pediatría. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of children hospitalized with 2009 pandemic influenza (pH1N1) in Madrid, Spain., Patients/methods: We included patients less than 14 years of age admitted to one of 18 hospitals in Madrid, Spain, between May 1 and November 30, 2009 and diagnosed with pH1N1 by polymerase chain reaction. A retrospective chart review was conducted and data were compared by age, presence of high-risk medical conditions, and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission., Results: A total of 517 pH1N1 cases were included for final analysis. One hundred and forty-two patients (27·5%) had predisposing underlying illnesses, with immunosuppression (36 children, 7%) and moderate persistent asthma (34, 6·6%) being the most common ones. Patients with underlying medical conditions had longer hospital stays [median 5, interquartile range (IQR) 3-8 days, versus median 4, IQR 3-6, P < 0·001] and required intensive care (20·4% versus 5·9%, P < 0·001) and mechanical ventilation more frequently than previously healthy children. Globally, intensive care was required for 51 patients (10%) and invasive mechanical ventilation for 12 (2%). Pediatric intensive care unit admission was significantly associated with abnormal initial chest X-ray [Odds Ratio (OR) 3·5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·5-8·5], underlying neurological condition (OR 3·1, CI 1·2-7·5) and immunosuppression (OR 2·9, 1·2-6·8). Five patients (0·9%) died; two with severe neurological disease, two with leukemia, and one with a malignant solid tumor., Conclusions: Children with underlying medical conditions experienced more severe pH1N1 disease. Risk factors for admission to the PICU included underlying neurological conditions, immunosuppression and abnormal initial chest X-ray., (© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)