According to an american study, young children with the Covid-19 are carriers of a significant amount of virus. Are they contagious ? Decryption.
The sick children of the Covid-19 would they finally contagious ? The question has been revived by an american study published Thursday in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics. According to this, the rate of genetic material of the coronavirus detected in the nose of children under five years of age is 10 to 100 times higher than that found in older children or adults. “Young children can potentially be important factors in spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the general population”, argue the researchers.
A hypothesis radically different from those made so far on the infectiousness of children. In fact, these have quickly been perceived as relatively low in symptomatic and low-propagators, following several scientific publications are moving in this direction.
And last June, a study conducted by the Pasteur Institute in the schools of Crépy-en-Valois – a city very affected during the first wave of infection – concluded that children pass little the Covid-19 at the school, either to other students or adults. “Typically, children are infected in families, by parents more often, but after that, convey very little to the school”, said its lead author, Arnaud Fontanet epidemiologist and member of the scientific Council.
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viral Load and infectiousness
in Addition to-Atlantic, the u.s. study was conducted between 23 march and 27 April in Chicago. The researchers have conducted tests of screening with nasal swab on 145 patients, with a mild to moderate form of Covid-19, a week after the onset of their first symptoms. The patients were divided into three groups : 46 children under five years of age, 51 children aged 5 to 17 years) and 48 adults between 18 and 65 years of age.
however, the researchers have observed the presence of the virus SARS-CoV-2 in the amount of “10 to 100 times superior” to the other in the respiratory tract of young children. “This clearly shows that the children have levels of virus that are similar and may be even higher than adults,” said the New York Times Taylor Heald-Sargent, the researcher infectious disease specialist pediatric who led the study published in JAMA Pediatrics. “It would not be surprising that they are capable of spreading the virus and spread it to others,” she added.
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nonetheless, this hypothesis is not proven at this stage in the work carried out by the researcher. In fact, the study shows that the viral load is greater in children under 5 years of age, but not that they are no longer contagious, however. “The viral load and contagiousness are two things that are not necessarily related. The contagiousness is influenced by the viral load, but many other factors come into play”, states Daniel Camus, an epidemiologist at the Pasteur Institute, contacted by The Express.
According to the researcher, to have a significant amount of virus does not mean, therefore, not necessarily be more contagious. “This is not because you are a carrier of many viruses, that you excrétez a lot of viruses. It is possible that children excrete much less virus than older people. Therefore, the viral load does not imply mechanically contagiousness”, develop.
Studies conflicting
In his study carried out in Crépy-en-Valois, the Pasteur Institute had identified three children from three different schools who were infected with the novel coronavirus at the time when the schools were still open. Now these three children had a contaminated person to the school, whether it be other students or adults. Total of 1340 individuals (510 children, 76 parents, 42 teachers, most of the personal non-teachers and family members) had been tested.
so far, beyond the study, published by JAMA Pediatrics, a further investigation attracts the attention for a few hours. The u.s. Centers for prevention and disease control (CDC) on Friday announced that hundreds of children have contracted the coronavirus in summer camp last month in the u.s. State of Georgia. The virus has infected at least 260 of 597 participants in this summer camp, according to u.s. health authorities. They indicate, moreover, that the figure might be more important to the extent that the results were available for only 58% of the group.
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“These results demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 has spread efficiently in an environment made up of young people, with rates of attacks are high among people of all age groups,” said the CDC. If the summer camp in question had ignored the recommendation to wear a face mask to each child, he had applied the decree of the State of Georgia, requiring all participants to submit a negative test at Covid-19, performed at a maximum of 12 days prior to their arrivalée. “This survey adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that kids of all ages are susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2 and that, contrary to first reports, they could play an important role in the transmission of the virus,” concluded the health authorities american.
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“Covid-19”, the new coronavirus
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In this context of uncertainty, Daniel Camus recommends that, to remain prudent, by limiting the contacts between the fragile and the children, when they show signs of infection. “It is now necessary to verify in further studies if the viral load important observed in children may have an impact on their level of infectiousness”, he adds. Research that promise to be in any case decisive, in the perspective of the back-to-school.
