How Children Tolerate COVID-19: New Data

How children tolerate COVID-19: new data

Despite the rapid spread of COVID-19 around the world, the amount of scientific information on how children respond to the new coronavirus remains limited. A group of Chinese scientists have published their observations of infected with the new coronavirus Wuhan Children's Hospital. The number of asymptomatic cases of the disease among the examined children reached 16%.

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Despite the rapid spread of COVID-19 around the world, the amount of scientific information on how children respond to the new coronavirus remains limited. Recently, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention published a survey of 72,314 cases of the disease, only 1% of which were in children under 10 years of age.

A group of Chinese scientists published in the New England Journal of Medicine their observations of those infected with the new coronavirus at the Wuhan Children's Hospital.

While working at the hospital from January 28 to February 26, doctors examined more than 1,390 children who had contact with infected adults. 171 of them tested positive for the new coronavirus. The average age of the patients was 6.7 years.

Fever (increased temperature) during the illness appeared in 41% of children, cough - in 46%, redness of the throat - in 48%. The disease was completely asymptomatic in almost 16% of patients. They showed no symptoms or radiological signs of COVID-19. Scientists noted that it is necessary to investigate how actively children without symptoms can infect other people.

This study confirms the claims (1,2) that the disease is much milder in children than in adults. However, scientists report that three children with COVID-19 required intensive care, including mechanical ventilation, within a month. All children whose condition became serious had comorbidities. One child died during the study.

These findings echo the recent statement by WHO Director-General Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus, who recalled that the new coronavirus could be life-threatening for children.