Suara.com – Children who experienced a little symptoms of Covid-19 or even without symptoms can spread corona virus more easily than seriously ill adults, said a study published Thursday (20/8/2020).
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Mass General Hospital for Children recently studied 192 children who were suspected of having Covid-19 or who had been in contact with infected people.
Of the 192 participants, 49 tested positive and had significantly higher levels of the virus in their respiratory tracts than adult Covid-19 patients in the ICU.
“I was surprised by the high levels of the 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.
Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the Center for Immunology and Mucosal Biology Research at MGH and senior author of the study, said experts had wrongly concluded that it was adults who were most infected.
“Our results show that children are not protected from this virus. We must not ignore children as potential transmitters of this virus,” explained Fasano.
The researchers also found that only half of the children who were infected had it fever.
Although children are less likely to develop severe disease, they can easily spread it to susceptible adults, especially if they are in school.
“Children are a possible source of the spread of this virus, and this must be taken into account in the planning stages of school reopening.”
Education bertajuk Pediatric SARS-CoV-2: Clinical Presentation, Infectivity, and Immune Responses ini diterbitkan dalam Journal of Pediatrics.
–
