Data on children as the sources of the coronavirus spread is scarce. (Representative)
Children under five carried significant amounts of the coronavirus in their upper respiratory tract, a small study released Thursday showed, raising new questions about whether children can infect other people.
Data on children as the sources of the coronavirus spread is scarce and early reports did not find strong evidence that children are the main contributors to the deadly virus that has killed 669,632 people worldwide.
Understanding the potential for transmission in children will be key to developing public health guidelines, said researchers who published the study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
Between March 23 and April 27, 2020, a research team from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern University tested collections of swabs from hospital, outpatient, departmental testing sites. emergency and driving in Chicago, Illinois.
The study included 145 people aged between one month and 65 years old with mild to moderate COVID-19 who were studied in three groups – children under five, children aged 5 to 17, and adults aged 18 to 65. .
Their analysis suggests that young children had a viral load 10 to 100 times that of adults in their upper respiratory tract.
Viral loads in older children with COVID-19 are similar to levels in adults. This study found greater amounts of viral nucleic acid – the genetic codes of proteins to produce new viruses – in children under 5 years old.
The study only looked at the viral nucleic acid and not the infectious virus, which means it’s not clear whether children would spread the virus.
Still, the prevalence among young children raises concerns about their behavioral patterns and proximity to schools and daycares as public health restrictions are relaxed, the researchers said.
In addition to the public health implications, the researchers said the findings could help focus on this population while targeting vaccination efforts when COVID-19 vaccines become available.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
