A new study suggests that children can spread the “coronavirus” silently and be more contagious than adults.
A new study – coming from doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital and Mass General Hospital for Children – found children can spread COVID-19 more than previously thought.
- 49 of 122 children in the study tested positive for the coronavirus.
- 18 of 122 subsequently experienced COVID-19 symptoms.
- Children who tested positive had higher levels of the coronavirus in their airways compared to adult ICU patients, the study found.
“I was surprised by the high levels of virus we found in children of all ages, especially in the first two days of infection. 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 child’ that has a high SARS-CoV-2 viral load round. ”- author of lead study Dr. Lael Yonker, Director of the MGH Cystic Fibrosis Center
The study – entitled “Pediatric SARS-CoV-2: Clinical Presentation, Infectivity, and Immune Responses” – was published this week in the Journal of Pediatrics.
The study suggests that a higher “viral load” may lead to them being more contagious to those around them.
Children often show no symptoms, per Study Finds, so it is difficult to identify cases. This may mean that there are more “silent spreaders” than previously believed.
“Children are not immune to this infection, and their symptoms do not correlate with exposure and infection. During this COVID-19 pandemic, we have been investigating mainly symptomatic subjects, so that we have come to the wrong conclusion that the vast majority of people are infected adults. However, our results show that children are not protected against this virus. We should not discount children as potential spreaders of this virus. ”- Alessio Fasano, Director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at MGH, said in a statement.
