Philippine Pediatric COVID-19 Living Clinical Practice Guidelines

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted a global crisis and has affected millions of people worldwide. With the evolution of the different variants of concern, the incidence of COVID-19 in the pediatric population has risen. The Surveillance and Analysis of COVID-19 in Children Nationwide (Salvacion) Registry, developed by the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines (PIDSP) and the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS), has reported 2,127 cases as of December 31, 2021, with 89.5% requiring hospitalization and 40.5% with moderate to critical disease severity.

Given the magnitude of the impact of COVID-19, with most of the clinical recommendations available designed towards adult patients, there was an urgent need for clinicians, public health officials and the government to also prioritize evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the pediatric population. Hence, the development of the Philippine Pediatric COVID-19 Living Clinical Practice Guidelines was conceptualized. This independent project, funded and supported by the PPS and PIDSP, aimed to formulate up to date, evidence-based recommendations on the treatment, diagnosis, infection prevention and control of COVID-19 in children. The development process followed the Manual for Clinical Practice Guideline Development of the Department of Health and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Approach. The pediatric recommendations can be found in the last section of the Philippine COVID-19 Living Clinical Practice Guidelines.

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