According to an American study, young children with Covid-19 are carriers of a significant amount of the virus. Are they contagious? Decoding. A sick child
According to an American study, young children with Covid-19 are carriers of a significant amount of the virus. Are they contagious? Decoding.
Will children sick with Covid-19 finally get infected? The question was raised again by a US study published on Thursday in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics. Therefore, the rate of coronavirus genetic material detected in the noses of children under the age of five is 10 to 100 times higher than in older children or adults. “Young children may potentially be important factors in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the general population,” the researchers said.
A hypothesis radically different from the previous ones about the contagiousness of children. In fact, they were quickly perceived as relatively low in symptomatic and weak propagators, after several scientific publications headed in that direction.
And last June, a study conducted by the Institut Pasteur in schools in Crépy-en-Valois – a town hard hit during the first wave of infection – concluded that children transmit little Covid-19 at school, either to other students or adults. “Children are usually infected in families, more often than their parents, but after that they transmit very little to school,” said lead author, epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet and member of the Scientific Council.
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viral load and infectivity
In addition to the Atlantic, the American study was conducted between March 23 and April 27 in Chicago. The researchers conducted nasal swab screening tests on 145 patients with mild to moderate Covid-19, one week after the first symptoms appeared. The patients were divided into three groups: 46 children up to five years old, 51 children from 5 to 17 years old) and 48 adults between 18 and 65 years old.
however, the researchers observed the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in an amount “10 to 100 times greater” than the other in the respiratory tract of young children. “This clearly shows that children have virus levels that are similar and may even be higher than adults,” Taylor Heald-Sargent, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who led the study published in JAMA Pediatrics, told the New York Times. “It would not be surprising if they are capable of spreading the virus and passing it on to others,” she added.
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nevertheless, this hypothesis has not been proven at this stage of the work carried out by the researcher. In fact, the study shows that the viral load is higher in children under the age of 5, but not that they are no longer contagious. Viral load and infectiousness are two things that are not necessarily related. Infectivity is affected by the viral load, but many other factors come into play,” says Daniel Camus, an epidemiologist from the Pasteur Institute, who was contacted by The Express.
According to the researcher, having a significant amount of the virus does not necessarily mean being more contagious. “This is not because you are a carrier of many viruses, that you excrete a lot of virus. It is possible that children excrete much less virus than older people. Therefore, viral load does not mean mechanical infectivity”, they develop.
Conflicting studies
In its study conducted in Crépy-en-Valois, the Institut Pasteur identified three children from three different schools who were infected with the new coronavirus while the schools were still open. Now these three children had an infected person at school, whether it was other students or adults. A total of 1,340 people were tested (510 children, 76 parents, 42 teachers, most people who are not teachers and family members).
so far, outside of the study published by JAMA Pediatrics, further investigation is gaining attention for several hours. The US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) announced on Friday that hundreds of children contracted the coronavirus at a summer camp last month in the US state of Georgia. According to US health authorities, at least 260 of the 597 participants of this summer camp were infected with the virus. Moreover, they indicate that the figure may be more important since results were available for only 58% of the group.
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“These results show that SARS-CoV-2 has spread efficiently in an environment made up of young people, and attack rates are high among people of all ages,” the CDC said. If the summer camp in question ignored the recommendation that every child wear a face mask, it applied a decree of the state of Georgia, according to which all participants must submit a negative test for Covid-19, carried out within 12 days. before their arrival. “This research adds to the growing body of evidence showing that children of all ages are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and that, contrary to initial reports, they could play an important role in the transmission of the virus,” concluded US health authorities.
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In this context of uncertainty, Daniel Camus recommends remaining prudent, limiting contact between the susceptible and children, when they show signs of infection. “It is now necessary to verify in further studies whether the important viral load observed in children can have an impact on their level of infectivity,” he adds. Research that promises to be decisive in any case, in the perspective of returning to school.
Updated date: August 1, 2020, 4:58 p.m
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: newstars.edu.vn