“Why is the COVID-19 infection rate so low in children?”
I am a 34 year old female with two young children. Why is the COVID-19 infection rate so low in children?
8 Answers
InfectiousDiseaseSpecialistInfectiousDiseaseSpecialist
Consider limited contact with adults positive.
We don't know yet why the infection rate in young children is lower than in adolescents or adults. It is important to point out that the course of infection in children is mostly without major symptoms and the death rate is very low. So children may seem healthy but have the infection and can transmit it to others.
I do not know if it really is low or if it is just children do not become ill. Serious illness is rare in children, but they do become infected
G dickinson
G dickinson
Children of all ages can get COVID-19, although they appear to be affected less commonly than adults]. In a systematic literature review (from January 1 through March 18, 2020), children accounted for 1 to 5 percent of diagnosed COVID-19 cases. Although surveillance definitions and criteria for testing have changed over time and geographically, the proportion of cases that have occurred in children from various countries (eg, China, South Korea, Italy, and the United States) are typically within this range
Children of all ages can get COVID-19, although they appear to be affected less commonly than adults]. In a systematic literature review (from January 1 through March 18, 2020), children accounted for 1 to 5 percent of diagnosed COVID-19 cases. Although surveillance definitions and criteria for testing have changed over time and geographically, the proportion of cases that have occurred in children from various countries (eg, China, South Korea, Italy, and the United States) are typically within this range
First, not very many children have been tested. Children do not live in nursing hones, jails and packing plants. Most healthy children do have under have underlying, pre-existing heart, lung, or other organ system disorders. Children are serving as untested. asymptomatic vectors of disease transmission to grandma et al. If children were dying at the rate of the elderly population, mothers would be storming the WH
This is an excellent question that nobody really knows the answer to just yet. It could be that the receptors for the virus are expressed differently in children. Certainly, children have far fewer comorbidities, especially hypertension, which has been identified as a major risk factor for severe disease. Maybe over time, the answer will be discovered, but for now, I am just thankful that they haven’t been hit as hard.
Randall Fisher, M.D.
Randall Fisher, M.D.
The epidemiology and the clinical presentation of coronavirus in children is not well understood. In the absence of widespread testing, we don't know if there are cases of infection that have gone undetected or if there actually is a lower rate of infection in kids. The emergence ;in recent weeks of the "widespread inflammatory reaction" that appears to be related to coronavirus indicates that there is much to be learned about the clinical presentation and potential complications of this infection in both children and adults. The safest course of action is to assume that children may be infected as readily as adults and therefore to apply all the precautions for them that are recommended for adults.
Lisa M. Dunkle, MD
Lisa M. Dunkle, MD
