Why are Children less Susceptible to COVID-19?
Now over 80 Countries and as of March 8th, 2020, 105,607 Infected and 3,666 deaths. How many cases are children? Only a few across the world! There have not been any cases of deaths reported to date or where children under the age of 15 are affected.
Understanding the Make-Up of the Young
As we know, children are always sick, especially during the winter months when the Flu virus is at its peak. Getting colds, leaky noses, allergies, and many other receptors of coronaviruses run the gamut with children.
A study by the New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that children may be less likely to become infected by the coronavirus because, of their strengthened, immunity. The ability of their immune system to fight and ward off continuous, harassment of viruses may be one reason why children pose a wall against COVID-19. “Children who are typically bombarded with certain other coronaviruses, such as the ones that cause the common cold, may have antibodies in their bloodstream from exposure to those that offers some cross-protection for this virus.” Dr. Buddy Creech, an associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/we-simply-do-not-understand-why-coronavirus-sparing-children-puzzling-n1147951
History Repeating Itself
In the previous outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), there were not any cases reported of children who have died from these outbreaks. Deaths tended to occur in the age group of 45 and older. https://www.health24.com/Medical/infectious-diseases/News/why-are-kids-not-dying-from-coronavirus-20200211
Table 1 shows the characteristics of patients in Wuhan with the existing COVID-19. Note that, there is no one that is affected in the age range of ‘less than 15 years of age. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001316#article_references
When the Wuhan people became sick, they seek attention as quickly as they could. Although, 27% of the patients seek medical help within two days, 80% of the patients were not hospitalized until day five. The onset of the illness was delayed much longer because, of the difficulty in identifying and isolating the early stages of the virus.
Data extracted of 1099 patients with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 from 552 hospitals in 30 provinces. The end point was admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), the use of mechanical ventilation, or death.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001316#article_references
Conclusion
The research concluded that the median age of the patients were 47 years old and 41.9% were female. 72.3% were of Wuhan non-residents. 88.7% experienced fever and cough during hospitalization. 83.2% were found to have Lymphocytopenia when they were admitted to the hospital.
Lymphocytopenia can be hereditary however, it is a blood disorder when the body does not have enough Lymphocytes (White Blood Cells). Lymphocytes are made in the bone marrow along with other blood cells and help to protect the body from infections. Therefore, when Lymphocytes are low, the body is not able to fight off infections as easily and this elevates the increased risk for infections.
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/lymphocytopenia
As COVID-19 outbreak continues, the need for proactive testing will become dire. Facilities such as outpatient clinics as well as, any emergency medical centers will require additional resource networks for testing. Especially in locations where there is yet a spread. Not only will this help as a strategy to proactively be in a situation to identify early case findings, it will reduce the drastic outcome of infected cases. Even though children may be protected by their strong, immune system, they can still carry strains of the deadly, COVID-19 at a much faster pace than their older counterparts.
