This site is intended for healthcare professionals

The Pedi-COVID Rx Podcast Series: Act Early: Timely Intervention for COVID-19 in High-Risk Children

Infectious diseases

Respiratory medicine

Share

Description

This program is supported by an independent education grant from Pfizer Global Medical Grants. This online education program has been designed solely for U.S. healthcare professionals only. The content is not available for healthcare professionals in any other countries.

Join leading paediatric infectious disease expert Dr Flor M. Muñoz for the second episode of this podcast series, which focuses on the importance of early intervention for children at high risk of severe COVID-19. This episode explores the evidence supporting timely antiviral use, the critical role of early testing and diagnosis, and practical, real-world considerations for selecting and initiating appropriate therapies to help reduce disease progression and improve outcomes in eligible paediatric patients.

Accreditation: 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™

Session Highlights:

Why Acting Early Matters: Examine why early antiviral therapies remain underutilised in children and review the clinical evidence supporting prompt treatment to prevent progression to severe disease in high-risk paediatric populations.
Timing and Treatment Options: Learn about the optimal window for initiating antiviral therapy, with a practical overview of authorised treatment options by age group, route of administration, and clinical setting.
Real-World Considerations: Understand key challenges in clinical practice, including access to testing, logistical barriers, and important drug–drug interactions that may affect treatment decisions in children with complex medical needs.
Prevention and Prophylaxis: Review the evolving role of prophylactic strategies, including antivirals and monoclonal antibodies, for select high-risk children who may not mount an adequate immune response.

Who Should Attend:

U.S.-based clinicians caring for children, including:

Pediatricians
Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialists
Family Medicine and Internal Medicine Physicians
Primary and Urgent Care Providers
Advanced Practice Providers (NPs, PAs)

Faculty

Dr Flor M. Muñoz is an Associate Professor of Paediatrics, Infectious Diseases, and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. She is a physician-scientist whose work centres on respiratory viral infections, vaccine safety and effectiveness, maternal immunisation, and the prevention of severe disease in high-risk paediatric and immunocompromised populations. Dr Muñoz also contributes to national and international advisory committees and research networks focused on immunisation and infectious disease prevention.

Continuing Education Information

Commercial support: This program is supported by an independent education grant from Pfizer Global Medical Grants.

This continuing education activity will be provided by AffinityCE and MedAll. This activity will provide continuing education credit for physicians. A statement of participation is available to other attendees.

Disclosures

Dr Flor M. Muñoz has disclosed financial relationships within the past 24 months with the following ineligible companies: Pfizer through service on Data and Safety Monitoring Boards for RSV and Group B Streptococcus vaccines, with Sanofi as a member of an adjudication committee, and with Merck through consulting activities as part of a technical advisory group. Her roles as an investigator on paediatric COVID-19 vaccine studies for Pfizer, as well as her consulting relationship with AstraZeneca, ended within the past 24 months.

These disclosures are provided in accordance with ACCME standards to ensure transparency and uphold the integrity of continuing education. Dr Muñoz intends to discuss non-FDA-approved uses of drug products and/or devices and their unlabelled indications during this activity. She will clearly disclose to the audience when such discussions take place.

AffinityCE staff, MedAll staff, as well as planners and reviewers, have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

Mitigation of Relevant Financial Relationships

AffinityCE adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CME activity, including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others, are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. Relevant financial relationships were mitigated by the peer review of content by non-conflicted reviewers prior to the commencement of the program.

Activity Accreditation for Health Professions

Physicians

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of AffinityCE and MedAll. AffinityCE is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AffinityCE designates this enduring material for a maximum of 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Physician Assistants

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of AffinityCE and MedAll. AffinityCE is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AffinityCE designates this enduring material for a maximum of 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physician assistants should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nurse Practitioners

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of AffinityCE and MedAll. AffinityCE is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AffinityCE designates this enduring material a maximum of 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Nurse practitioners should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nurses & Other Professionals

All other health care professionals completing this continuing education activity will be issued a statement of participation indicating the number of hours of continuing education credit. This may be used for professional education CE credit. Please consult your accrediting organization or licensing board for their acceptance of this CE activity.

System Requirements

Mobile device (e.g., large-format smart phone; laptop or tablet computer) or desktop computer with a video display of at least 1024 × 768 pixels at 24-bit color depth, capable of connecting to the Internet at broadband or faster speeds, with a current version Internet browser and popular document viewing software (e.g., Microsoft Office, PDF viewer, image viewer) installed. Support for streaming or downloadable audio-visual materials (e.g., streaming MP4, MP3 audio) in hardware and software may be required to view, review, or participate in portions of the program

Unapproved and/or off-label use disclosure

AffinityCE/MedAll requires CE faculty to disclose to the participants:

1. When products or procedures being discussed are off-label, unlabeled, experimental, and/or investigational (not US Food and Drug Administration [FDA] approved); and

2. Any limitations on the information presented, such as data that are preliminary or that represent ongoing research, interim analyses, and/or unsupported opinion.

Participation Costs

There is no cost to participate in this program.

CME Inquiries

For all CME policy-related inquiries, please contact us at ce@affinityced.com.

This continuing education activity is active starting December 16th 2025 and will expire on November 26th 2026. Estimated time to complete this activity: 15 minutes.

Learning objectives

Initiate evidence-based COVID-19 therapy for eligible high-risk children utilizing safety and efficacy data as well as family-centered shared-decision strategies that overcome logistical barriers to early treatment.

Similar communities

Similar events and on demand videos

Computer generated transcript

Warning!
The following transcript was generated automatically from the content and has not been checked or corrected manually.

Welcome to the Quick Consult podcast, brought to you by Metall. Before starting this podcast, please review the faculty information, disclosure statements, and learning objectives using the link in the episode description. To claim your CME credit, complete the evaluation using the link in the episode description. This podcast is a continuing education activity managed and accredited by Affinity CE in collaboration with Metall. This activity is supported by an independent medical education grant from Pfizer Global Medical Grants. Welcome to the PD COVID treatment podcast series, an accessible evidence-based informed program designed to build your confidence in recognizing, treating and managing high risk pediatric COVID-19 patients. I'm your host, Doctor Phil McIlnay, and today we're again joined. By Doctor Fleur Munoz, who is associate professor of pediatrics and infectious Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. In our first episode, we established how to identify the high-risk pediatric patient. Today, Doctor Munoz, we're gonna focus on acting early, timely intervention for COVID-19 in high-risk children. Providers report limited confidence in using early antivirals for high-risk children. Why are we seeing this underutilization and what is the core clinical benefit of early antiviral intervention? You know, we know that we have uh the option for early treatment, and also the option for prevention of progression of disease um of for patients who have a high-risk conditions who are infected with COVID-19. We learned that during the pandemic, and we had antivirals that we continue to have available today to do this. I think that One of the reasons that maybe providers are less likely to utilize these early antivirals today is that the perception of the severity and consequences of COVID-19 infection have changed. Um, we think that this is maybe a disease that is less likely. To, uh, result in severe disease, hospitalization, complications, or death anymore. Um, but the reality is that even though indeed it is not usually a big problem for otherwise healthy children, they can recover well and most of us have now been infected and have immunity. So, especially adolescents, older children would have already some memory and be able to respond to, to a new infection. Um, some of our high-risk groups have either inadequate immunity from previous vaccinations or were never vaccinated, and they would have also, um, other reasons why they could progress to more severe disease due to immunocompromised or inadequate, uh, function of their, uh, respiratory and, and cardiovascular, um, systems, for example, so, or other metabolic diseases. So, I think that, um, What is important, uh, is that, even though there is underutilization because of that perception, that we continue to be Cognizant of the fact that these antivirals exist and that the recommendations to utilize them for early treatment or for prevention of progression remain in place so that we can provide this option to our high-risk children and adolescents with COVID-19. Timing is key for any antiviral. What is the optimal window for initiating therapy in eligible high-risk pediatric patients? So indeed, timing is very critical for antivirals. We know that for any other viral infection for which we have um antiviral drugs. Um, the reason is because the purpose of antivirals is to stop the replication of a virus and stop the effect that this virus could have on our system. So that in the case of a respiratory infection, um, we want to usually start treatment. As early as possible before the disease progresses to cause lower respiratory tract symptoms. So, pneumonia, for example, or other complications of, of lung infection. And to be able to achieve that, um, we want to start the antiviral. As early as when the first symptoms develop. So, the optimal window for most antivirals is in the first day or two after onset of symptoms. And this is also why it is important to have a diagnosis, or to have an understanding of what the symptoms are for COVID-19, or what is Circulating in the community to understand that if you do end up having a respiratory illness, that it could be COVID-19, or understanding that if you've had close contact with someone who knows they've had COVID-19, that your symptoms could be associated with that. Because the best um results are going to be really when you initiate the treatment. As soon as the symptoms begin and usually not later than the 1st 48, 72 hours in general. Um, I will say though that for some of our most um severely ill patients, we would start antivirals later in, in just really hopes that there could be an effect uh for further progression of disease. But in general, as early as possible after the onset of symptoms. Let's look at the available options. Can you briefly review the key antiviral treatment options authorized for use in children perhaps under the age of 12 and over the age of 12, because there's a distinction there, focusing on the appropriate populations and route of administration. Absolutely. So we don't have very many options, um, but we have uh clinical trials that demonstrated that uh one antiviral, um called remdesivir. Which has specific activity against COVID-19 and reduces viral load, reduces uh the progression of, of, of disease, uh, and was utilized in uh children of all ages in the clinical trials and during the pandemic. Um, it has, um, adequate, uh, Activity, I would say, and, and, and adequate data on, on its safety and efficacy, uh, based on its very extensive utilization during the pandemic. And we have um dosing by weight for uh this antiviral, um, with experience. In infants as young as the first few weeks and months of life to adolescence. The problem, quote unquote problem with this antiviral is that it is an um intravenous administration, and as such, it requires um an IV and, and usually administration in, in a, in a clinic or hospital setting. So, we have two indications. One is for treatment, as I mentioned, for patients that already have developed uh and are diagnosed with COVID-19, and, um, Usually, that is about a five-day course. And we also have an indication for this antiviral for prevention uh in those high-risk children, where uh a 3-day course um was recommended, and again, we continue to use that uh to try to prevent progression, but a shorter course before onset of symptoms just as a post-exposure prophylaxis is also recommended. So that's one. Um, the second antiviral that we utilized in pediatrics, but restricted to 12 years of age and older. is maltrevir ritonavir, which is a combination antiviral that is oral, and that is an advantage that can be used, uh, again, for persons uh 12 years of age and older, so not for the younger children. It has an indication for treatment after diagnosis of COVID-19, and it can be given, again, orally as an outpatient course. Um, For the most part, this was the main utilization for, for these antiviral. Now, um, it is, it is important again to know that it's two different routes and that there would be specific indications based on age and uh we need to consider the availability of these options uh to offer to patients. What are the critical drug, drug interactions that primary care and urgent care providers need to be aware of? Right. So that is also something that we do need to take into consideration when making a decision on antiviral treatment. Um, certainly for the nurmaltrovir ritonavir combination, the limitation on its use for especially patients that