Better immune system or frequent exposure to illnesses might be some of the reasons why children seem less affected by the new coronavirus that spread from China to 80 countries. The majority of the patients are older people. Among the 3400 casualties there are so far no victims under the age of 9. According to NBC TV station, scientists have no clear understanding why the virus behaves in this way.
The WHO has published a report stating that in China children make up only 2.4 % of the reported cases. From those cases only 2.5% showed serious symptoms and 0.2% ended up in a critical condition.
“Other known coronaviruses attack both adults and children equally, but this one for whatever reason targets mainly adult population”, says Frank Esper, a paediatrician and a specialist on infectious diseases from Cleveland hospital.
“We see the same pattern in some other diseases – for example, chickenpox, where adults experience far worse symptoms than children,” reminds Vanessa Raab from the department of infectious diseases, medical centre of the New York University. People’s immune system gets weaker as they get older so it is harder for them to fight off diseases, she adds.
Better immune system
Buddy Creech, a paediatrician, Nashville Children’s hospital, explains that children frequently suffer from other types of coronaviruses, like those that cause common colds. This allows their immune system to build up antibodies that protect them against COVID-19 which is caused by the new coronavirus. He also agrees with Dr Raab about children having stronger immune systems in general.
It seems that children are exposed to coronavirus as frequently as adults, but they either have no clinical symptoms or very mild ones. But that doesn`t mean that they cannot be carriers of the disease or that there is no risk at all.
“But we simply do not know why children are spared,” Creech admits.
In the Czech Republic, one of the 19 infected people includes a 12-year-old girl from Ústecko area who went skiing to Italy with her family. According to the doctors, she has no symptoms. In Prague, there is an infected child and a one-year-old infant.
This article has been kindly translated from source by Jana Nemcova for Littlepanda.cz