Children play a more important role in the community’s spread of covid-19 of what was thought, with viral loads higher than those of sick adults, but remaining asymptomatic, indicates a study released this Thursday.
The study, by investigators at the Pediatric Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, United States, is the most comprehensive study of children with Covid-19 so far, involving 192 children and young people from zero to 22 years old.
Of these, 49 tested positive for Covid-19 and another 18 had a disease related to the new coronavirus.
The research results showed that infected children have a significantly higher level of virus in the respiratory tract than adults hospitalized in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) for the treatment of Covid-19.
“I was surprised by the high levels of viruses that we find in children of all ages, especially in the first two days of infection,” said Lael Yonker, the study’s lead author.
“I was not expecting that the viral load would be so high. It is thought about a hospital, and all the precautions taken to treat seriously ill adults, but the viral loads of these hospitalized patients are significantly lower than those of a healthy child who walks by. there with a high viral load SARS-CoV-2 “, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, he added.
Risk of contagion is greater when there is a high viral load
The researcher recalled that transmissibility or risk of contagion is greater when there is a high viral load, and that even when children have typical symptoms of Covid-19, such as fever, cough or runny nose, an accurate diagnosis is not always easy because they are common symptoms of childhood illnesses.
The investigation also examined the response to the disease of infected children, and found that children are not immune to infection.
“During this cCovid-19 pandemic we examined mainly symptomatic people, so we came to the wrong conclusion that the vast majority of infected people are adults. However, our results show that children are not protected against this virus. We should not overlook children as potential spreaders of the virus, “warned Alessio Fasano, another of the study’s authors.
Risk of contamination in schools and spread to the community is high
The researchers note that while children with Covid-19 are not as likely to become seriously ill as adults, as asymptomatic carriers, or carriers with few symptoms, when they attend school they can spread the infection and take the virus home.
And it is especially worrying in families with elderly people at home.
Experts explain that more viral load is detected in children as they are diagnosed earlier than adults.
“I am not surprised,” admitted Maria João Brito, the head of the infectious diseases unit at Hospital Dona Estefânia.
The study looked at the issue of children having fewer immune receptors, which would make them more susceptible to infection or severely ill and argue that children can carry a high viral load, which makes them more contagious, regardless of their susceptibility the development of Covid-19.
The Covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 780,000 deaths and infected more than 22.1 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report made by the French agency AFP.
In Portugal, 1,786 people died of the 54,701 confirmed to be infected, according to the most recent bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health.
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