L‘study, coordinated by the Necker Hospital (AP-HP, Paris) and the Institut Pasteur and posted on the Medrxiv pre-publication site, confirms the high frequency and high level of antibodies against seasonal coronaviruses in the general population, which does not however prevent infections by these viruses every winter.
“Infection with seasonal coronaviruses does not offer significant protection against infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other associated diseases such as syndrome related to Kawasaki disease”, notes Marc Eloit, head of the laboratory discovery of pathogens at the Institut Pasteur in a press release.
“If the COVID-19 virus behaves like the seasonal coronaviruses, this observation questions the ability of the population to achieve a level of immunity sufficient to prevent the regular reappearance of the disease” deduces the researcher, co-author of the study.
Antibodies against the four seasonal coronaviruses (NL63, HKU1, 229E, OC43) were found in 67-100% of children depending on the viruses.
The level of these antibodies was comparable between children who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and those who tested negative, whether these were patients with Kawasaki-like syndrome or those who had has no or little symptomatic form of COVID-19, study shows.
Antibodies neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 virus were present in 56% of positive children, with a relative frequency increasing over time (up to 100% at the end of the study, two months before the peak of the epidemic).
More than half (69.4%) of these children had never had symptoms suggestive of infection.
The question of the possible cross-immunity conferred by the four seasonal coronaviruses vis-à-vis COVID-19, was recently asked after the demonstration of antibodies and immune cells recognizing the new coronavirus in people before the epidemic phase.
Children have mildly symptomatic forms of COVID-19 that often go unnoticed. Severe injuries related to Kawasaki disease are very rare.
The Ped-Covid study took place from March 1 to June 1 in seven hospitals in Paris and the surrounding area, with 775 children (0 to 18 years old), 36 of whom had an inflammatory syndrome linked to COVID-19 and related to Kawasaki disease.
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