A new study unveiled this Thursday, June 4 in Le Parisien confirms that children are “very small contaminators” of coronavirus.
- The study was conducted by 27 pediatricians on 605 children under 15 in Ile-de-France.
- Serological tests show that only 10.7% of these children had Covid-19.
- “In addition, in nine out of ten cases, it is the sick adults who infect the children and not the other way around”, explains the scientist in charge of the study.
We already knew children were more spared from the coronavirus than adults and also less contagious. Today, almost a month after the start of the reopening of French schools, a new study unveiled this Thursday, June 4 in the columns of the Parisian confirms that the children are “very small contaminators”.
This study was conducted by 27 pediatricians on 605 children under the age of 15 living in Ile-de-France, the French region most affected by Covid-19. Among them, 322 were asymptomatic and 283 had symptoms. Serological tests, carried out by blood test, show that only 10.7% of children have had the disease: “1.8% (i.e. 11 children, Editor’s note) had a positive PCR test when they were screened during the lockdown. But looking at this last figure more closely, we were really surprised to see that only 0.6% was contagious. Moreover, in nine cases out of ten, it is the sick adults who contaminate the children and not the reverse. Even when they have siblings,” explain to Parisian Professor Robert Cohen, pediatrician at the intercommunal hospital of Créteil (Val-de-Marne) and vice-president of the French Society of Pediatrics, in charge of the study, .
In the 11 children who tested positive for PCR, “three quarters (of the 11 patients already had antibodies against the coronavirus and their PCR was overall very weakly positive, so we can think that of these 11 patients, at least three quarters of them did not have the possibility of contaminating ”he added to BFM TV.
For a relaxation of the “inapplicable health protocol” in schools
This could be explained because the children would have already caught other coronaviruses recently and would therefore benefit from cross-immunity. Another reason could be that children have fewer virus receptors on their nasal lining. What’s more, the runny nose would make them more resistant to infections. Finally, their small size would allow them not to be directly exposed to droplets, says the scientist.
“Children are low carriers, low transmitters, and when they are contaminated it is almost always adults in the family who have contaminated them”already explained Professor Cohen to BFMTV during the first results of the study published in mid-May.
In a press release published a few days before the reopening of schools, Public health France recalled that “pediatric cases of Covid-19 represent a small part (1 to 5%) of all cases reported worldwide”. “This is essentially linked to the fact that most infected children have asymptomatic or mild forms. Severe forms and deaths in children are exceptional”it was specified.
On the strength of the results of this new study, Professor Cohen is now pleading for a relaxation of the health rules in force in schools. “What I regret are the conditions of their reopening after May 11. We soaped the board so that the students did not return to class. The health protocol is inapplicable: put markings on the ground in the playground? Not console a child by taking him in his arms? You realize, reaching this degree of inhumanity. Nor was there overwhelming enthusiasm from the teachers. I don’t think we’ll be applauding them all at the end of this crisis.”he laments to the Parisian. The doctor also encourages meetings between grandparents and their grandchildren, provided that there are not too many of them in the same room, to limit hugs and to reinforce daily hand washing. “Children are less dangerous to their grandparents than their parents themselves.” he insists.
A low viral load
On April 11, exactly one month before deconfinement, a study published in the magazine Clinical Infectious Disease showed that a nine-year-old Frenchman who had contracted the coronavirus in Contamines-Montjoie in Haute-Savoie at the start of the epidemic would not have infected anyone in the three schools and the ski club which he had subsequently attended.
“It is possible that children, because they do not show many symptoms and have a low viral load, transmit little of this new coronavirus”, then explained Kostas Danis, epidemiologist at Public Health France and main author of this study, to AFP. Indeed, when he fell ill, the young patient had triggered mild symptoms. Eight days later, he had a very low viral load.
“Initially, we all started from the fact that children are great transmitters of microbes. It’s true for the flu, for bacteria… This is the reason why we blocked the schools fairly quickly. The notion that children are said to be less contagious is important because it can play a decisive role in deciding which group of children are going to be reintroduced into schools. This may be an additional argument to say that the little ones may be a good choice. This is a new and interesting concept. One virus is not the other and this is perhaps one of the many surprises that this virus has in store for us”, commented Yves Van Laethem, infectious disease specialist at the CHU Saint-Pierre in Brussels, with RTL-info.
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