NEW DELHI: The latest evidence on Covid-19 in children, which are set to have implications for reopening of schools, shows that viral load in asymptomatic kids is higher than in patients with severe disease on ventilators.
Until now, it was thought that children are less susceptible to the virus. The new research from the US however indicates that they are silent carriers. These findings, published in The Journal of Paediatrics, have been dubbed as “surprising and unexpected” as they challenge current perception about the infectious disease in children.
“This study reveals that children may be a potential source of contagion in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in spite of milder disease or lack of symptoms, and immune dysregulation is implicated in severe post-infectious multisystem inflammatory syndrome,” noted the researchers associated with the Harvard University and other institutions.
They also showed that viral load in children in asymptomatic or early infection phase was significantly higher than in hospitalised adults with severe disease. The results also suggest that age does not affect viral load in respiratory secretions and young kids or infants can carry as high loads as older children. These results may have come as a dampener to an alternative argument by some epidemiologists who have batted for gradual reopening of educational institutions.