Story at a glance
- A new study looks at the traces of the coronavirus in children and adults.
- In some cases, young children carry 10 times the amount adults do.
Children could be as potent transmitters of the coronavirus as adults, according to a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Medical researchers based out of two Chicago facilities, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, studied 145 nasopharyngeal samples of patients who exhibited mild to moderate symptoms of a COVID-19 infection, all between the ages of younger than one months old to 65 years old who ultimately tested positive for the virus.
When comparing three groups divided by age, specifically children younger than 5 years old, children between the ages of 5 and 17 years old, and adults aged between 18 and 65, researchers found that younger children had equivalent or greater traces of viral nucleic acid in their upper respiratory tract when compared to older patients.
In summation: Younger children had similar traces of the coronavirus in their noses as did older children and adults. Some children were even found to have anywhere from 10 to 100 times the amount present in adults from the cohort.
“Young children can potentially be important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 spread in the general population, as has been demonstrated with respiratory syncytial virus, where children with high viral loads are more likely to transmit,” the study read.
While the authors acknowledged that they observed the detection of viral nucleic acid rather than the presence of the infectious virus, other COVID-19 pediatric reports saw a correlation between high nucleic acid levels and the formation of infectious viral particles.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CORONAVIRUS RIGHT NOW
FAUCI WARNS YOUNG PEOPLE THEY ARE NOT IMMUNE TO ADVERSE EFFECTS OF CORONAVIRUS
12 STATES SHOW RECORD SPIKES IN CORONAVIRUS CASES
HERE ARE THE 6 WAYS THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC COULD END
YOUR BLOOD TYPE MAY AFFECT WHETHER YOU GET CORONAVIRUS
This implies that the virus can be spread and contracted by children.
“This supports the idea that children are able to get infected and replicate virus and therefore shed and transmit virus just as much as older children and adults,” Taylor Heald-Sargent, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Lurie Children’s, told NBC.
The results of this study, while limited, play an important role in the nationwide decisions states and counties are making when in regards to reopening schools for the upcoming 2020-21 academic year.
Previously in the pandemic, children were largely thought to be immune to adverse infections and primarily acted as carriers to other vulnerable populations, like parents and grandparents. The rise in multisystem inflammatory infections seen in some children who tested positive for the virus, however, forced officials to reevaluate which demographics were most at-risk.
Study authors note that the “Behavioral habits of young children and close quarters in school and day care settings raise concern for SARS-CoV-2 amplification in this population as public health restrictions are eased.”
Due to the high load of viral nucleic acid found in children, the researchers further said that younger children will also be an important population to include in inoculation and immunization efforts with the eventual deployment of a vaccine for COVID-19.
BREAKING NEWS ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
COUNTRIES LED BY WOMEN HAVE FARED BETTER AGAINST CORONAVIRUS. WHY?
MORE THAN 8.7 MILLION CORONAVIRUS CASES WENT UNDETECTED IN MARCH
EXPERTS: 90% OF CORONAVIRUS DEATHS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED
FAUCI PREDICTS ANOTHER CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IN THE FALL WITH A ‘VERY DIFFERENT’ OUTCOME
TEXAS REPORTS SINGLE-DAY HIGH IN CORONAVIRUS DEATHS TWO WEEKS AFTER REOPENING
changing america copyright.
