Many Young Kids With COVID Show No Symptoms of the Disease

Sept. 6, 2022 – Don’t rely on a runny nostril.

Young youngsters with COVID-19 typically don’t have any signs in any respect, even after they have a excessive quantity of the virus in them, based on a brand new examine.

Just 14% of adults who examined constructive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had no signs of the illness, versus 37% of kids as much as age 4, the researchers discovered.

This raises concern that folks, childcare suppliers, and preschools might not be seeing the extent of an infection in seemingly wholesome younger youngsters who’ve been uncovered to COVID-19, wrote lead creator Ruth A. Karron, MD, and colleagues within the Journal of the American Medical Association Open.

The examine concerned 690 individuals from 175 households in Maryland who had been monitored carefully between November 2020 and October 2021. Every week for 8 months, they accomplished on-line symptom checks and had PCR testing – which detects the presence of the virus inflicting COVID-19 – achieved with nasal swabs. Those with signs submitted extra swabs for evaluation.

“What was different about our study [compared with previous studies] was the intensity of our collection, and the fact that we [tested those who did not have COVID symptoms],” Karron, a pediatrician and professor within the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, mentioned in an interview. “The fact that we were sampling every single week meant that we could pick up those early infections.”

The examine additionally stands out for its deal with younger kids, Karron mentioned. All households that took half within the examine had at the very least one youngster as much as 4 years outdated, with 256 out of the 690 individuals (37.1%) on this youngest age group. The different individuals within the examine had been 100 kids ages 5 to 17 (14.5%) and 334 adults ages 18 to 74 (48.4%).

Youngest Were Most Likely to Not Have Symptoms

By the top of the examine, 51 individuals had examined constructive for the coronavirus, together with 14 who had no signs. A more in-depth look confirmed that kids ages 4 and youthful who bought COVID-19 had been greater than twice as more likely to not have signs as contaminated adults (36.8% vs. 14.3%).

The relationship between signs and viral load – the quantity of the virus that causes COVID in an individual – additionally differed between adults and younger kids.

While adults with excessive viral hundreds – suggesting they had been extra contagious – usually had extra extreme COVID-19 signs, that was not the case with younger youngsters. This means that kids with delicate or no signs may nonetheless be extremely contagious.

Karron says these findings ought to assist dad and mom and others make higher choices. She says that even when younger kids don’t have signs, they need to be examined for COVID-19 if they’ve been uncovered to others with the illness. And she recommends appearing on the outcomes.

“If a family is infected with the virus, and the 2-year-old [has no symptoms], and people are thinking about a visit to elderly grandparents … one shouldn’t assume that the 2-year-old is uninfected,” Karron says. “That child should be tested along with other family members.”

Testing also needs to be thought of for younger kids uncovered to COVID-19 at childcare services, she says.

But different specialists didn’t essentially agree.

“I question whether that effort is worth it,” says Dean Blumberg, MD, a professor and chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UC Davis Health in Sacramento, CA.

He notes that current FDA steerage for COVID-19 testing calls for 3 unfavorable at-home antigen checks – which detect proteins, referred to as antigens, from the virus that causes COVID-19 – to substantiate lack of illness.

“That would take 4 days to get those tests done,” he says. “So, it’s a lot of testing. It’s a lot of record keeping, it’s inconvenient, it’s uncomfortable to be tested, and I just question whether it’s worth that effort.”

Do the Findings Still Apply?

Blumberg additionally questions whether or not the examine, which was accomplished nearly a yr in the past, displays the present pandemic panorama.

Although the specialists interviewed had completely different opinions of the findings, they shared related views on vaccination.

“The most important thing that parents can do is get their kids vaccinated, be vaccinated themselves, and have everybody in the household vaccinated and up to date for all doses that are indicated,” Blumberg says.

Karron notes that vaccination might be extra vital within the coming months.

“Summer is ending; school is starting,” she says. “We’re going to be in large groups indoors again very soon. To keep young children safe, I think it’s really important for them to get vaccinated.”