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Children can carry the coronavirus in their nose for up to three weeks, according to a study from South Korea.
Previous studies have found that the vast majority of children with the virus have mild or no symptoms.
But these findings shed light on the unresolved question of how likely children are to transmit the virus to others.
The study emphasizes the continuing role of social distancing and good hygiene when children return to school.
The President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Professor Russell Viner, explains that there are three separate but linked questions about children and Covid-19:
- Do children get the virus?
- How badly do they get the virus?
- Do they pass it on to others?
While we know for sure that children can contract the virus, Professor Viner says that data from antibody blood tests suggest that they may be less susceptible to contracting it than adults, especially children under the age of 12.
And scientists are very confident that children are less likely to get sick than adults, even if they do get it, and many of them don’t show any symptoms. That’s what the British study, published on Friday, confirms.
The third question is the one we know the least about, and this is the one the South Korean study attempts to address.
What does the South Korean study say?
The study, based on 91 children, found that even among those with few or no symptoms, the virus could be found on their swabs for up to three weeks later.
The fact that they had a detectable virus in their nose, the authors concluded, suggested that they were capable of transmitting it.
Because of the way South Korea tested, tracked, and isolated cases, even those without symptoms, it is in a unique position to observe this group.
Once the cases were identified and isolated, the patients were repeatedly examined until the virus disappeared.
Thus, the study was able to provide us with new information about children as carriers of the virus and their potential ability to spread it.
However, like other studies, a piece of the puzzle is still missing.
The fact that the virus is in a child’s nose does not definitively prove that they are transmitting it at the same rate as adults.
Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, chief of the pediatric diseases division at Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC, said it would be “illogical to think that children have no role in transmission” since they do carry the virus.
But professor of children’s health at the University of Liverpool, Professor Calum Semple said: “The presence of the virus genetic material on swabs in the respiratory tract does not have to be equated with transmission, particularly in people who do not have significant symptoms such as coughing and sneezing. “
So can we draw a conclusion?
Logic dictates that in both children and adults, people with few or no symptoms, who do not cough or project the virus into the air, are likely to be less infectious, and children generally contract milder cases of the disease.
But a significant number of asymptomatic people could still have a notable effect on the infection rate.
And, as Professor Viner points out, keeping schools closed is not neutral either, but poses its own risks: to children’s development, education, and mental health.
While the exact risk posed by children remains an open question for now, answering it will be vital to controlling future outbreaks.
Dr. DeBiasi believes that while the “vast majority of infected children have mild or unrecognized disease,” they can play an “important” role in allowing the spread of infection through communities.
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