Children with too few to no symptoms may spread the coronavirus more easily than seriously ill adults, according to a new study published Thursday.
The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Mass General Hospital for Children recently studied 192 children suspected of having the coronavirus or who had been in contact with an infected person.
Of the 192 participants, 49 tested positive and had significantly higher levels of virus in their airways compared with virus-driven adults in intensive care units.
“I was surprised by the high levels of virus we found in children of all ages, especially in the first two days of infection,” said Dr. Lael Yonker, director of the MGH Cystic Fibrosis Center and lead author of the study. “I did not expect the viral load to be so high. You think of a hospital, and of all the precautions taken to treat seriously ill adults, but the viral loads of these hospital patients are significantly lower than a ‘healthy’ children ‘running with a high viral load SARS-CoV-2. “
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Dr Alessio Fasano, director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at MGH and senior author of the study, said health experts have come to the “wrong conclusion” that adults are the vast majority of those infected because “we have mainly screened symptomatic subjects. “
“Children are not immune to this infection, and their symptoms do not correlate with exposure and infection,” she said. “Our results show that children are not protected against this virus. We should not discount children as potential spreaders of this virus. “
Researchers also found only half of the children who tested positive had fever, questioning the effectiveness of proposed thermal scanners in schools, USA Today reported.
“How likely are you to record each case of COVID? The answer is only 50% of the time,” said Drs. Roberta DeBiasi, head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC, of thermal scanners, according to the newspaper. “You still have to put in place all those other measures to try to spread (because) children will be missed from screening methods.”
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The researchers found that although children are less likely to become seriously ill with the virus, they can easily spread it to vulnerable adults in their lifetime, especially when they are in school.
DeBiasi added that, based on other respiratory diseases, children are known spreaders.
The researchers also studied a rare infection that can result in heart problems from the baby’s immune response to the virus.
“This is a serious complication as a result of the immune response to COVID-19 infection, and the number of these patients is growing,” said Fasano, who is also a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. “And, as in adults with these very serious systemic complications, the heart seems to be the favorite organ that targets post-COVID-19 immune response.”
She said the complication of immune response should factor into vaccine production strategy.
The researchers advise wearing masks, social distance, hand washing, a combination of personal and distance learning and often testing when they return to school in the fall.
“This study provides essential facts for policymakers to make the best decisions possible for schools, day care centers and other institutions that serve children,” Fasano said. “Children are a potential source for the spread of this virus, and it needs to be taken into account in the planning stages for school relocation.”
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The study, entitled “Pediatric SARS-CoV-2: Clinical Presentation, Infectivity, and Immune Responses,” was originally published in the Journal of Pediatrics Thursday.
