Children carry coronavirus in their noses and throats for weeks, if they show no symptoms, South Korean researchers reported on Friday.
Although their study does not necessarily show that children are transmitting the virus to others, they do suggest that it may be responsible for the “silent spread” of the virus in these communities.
“In a series of studies in this case, a vague infection in children may have been associated with quiet COVID-19 transmission in the community,” researchers from various South Korean institutes wrote in the study.
The study, published in the journal Jamda Pediatrics on Friday, included data from 91 children in South Korea who were diagnosed with Covid-19 between February 18 and March 31.
In those patients, 20 – or 22% – showed no obvious symptoms and remained asymptomatic throughout the study. Other patients experienced other symptoms, including fever, cough, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and loss of smell or taste. The duration of their symptoms varies from one to 36 days.
But the genetic material from the virus in children was detectable over a period of 17.6 days. The virus can be found in children who have no symptoms for an average of 14 days.
The statement, shared by the UK-based Science Media Center, said it did not mean children were spreading the virus, said Callum Sample, a professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool.
“The presence of viral genetic material in the respiratory tract should not be equated with transmission, especially in people who do not have significant symptoms such as coughing and sneezing,” Sample said. Sample said.
It is possible that the virus stays in children longer than the documented time. And more research is also needed to determine whether similar findings will emerge in a larger group of children in other parts of the world.
Statistics show that only 8.5% of patients were diagnosed with Covid-19 where symptoms began. Most – .2 66.3% – with symptomatic symptoms were unrecognized before diagnosis and 25.4% developed symptoms after diagnosis.
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