This is a peculiarity that intrigues scientists: the absence of victims of the covid-19 coronavirus in the youngest.
A surprising finding because infants and young children are usually among those vulnerable to infectious diseases.
This time, the figures are however formal. The most complete analysis to date, published on February 17 by the Chinese authorities and then on February 24 in the American medical journal Jama, shows that the mortality rate increases markedly with age.
Out of almost 45,000 confirmed cases, the average mortality rate is 2.3%. But there have been no deaths among children under the age of 10.
Even better, children – when affected – suffer only from minor symptoms.
Then it stays low until age 39, at 0.2%, then drops to 0.4% in those in their forties, 1.3% in those aged 50-59, 3.6% in those aged 60-69 and 8% in the 70-79 age group. And rises to 14.8% in people over 80 years old.
“Less dangerous than the flu”
“This is surprising, because when we look at all the other respiratory infections – bacterial or viral – we almost always have a lot of serious cases in the very elderly, but also in the very young, especially those under five”, underlines Cécile Viboud, epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health (United States).
“This new virus is less dangerous for children than the flu virus, which has already killed 105 this winter in the United States!”, Even explains Professor Jacques Brouard, pneumopediatrician and infectious disease specialist, head of the pediatrics department at the CHU from Caen to Figaro.
Cross protection or immune system
John M. Nicholls, professor of pathology at the University of Hong Kong puts forward a first hypothesis: “We must look if there is not a form of cross-protection due to the recent epidemic of seasonal coronavirus”, those who cause a simple cold.
A second hypothesis is that the immune system of children is designed “not to overreact in the presence of new infectious agents”.
Either way, the covid-19 coronavirus is weaving its web around the world. In France, a “new stage” was reached on Friday, according to the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
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