Age would not influence the contagious potential of a person infected with Covid-19. A discovery that raises questions about the vaccine opportunity for children.
- Children and adolescents are less susceptible to infection than adults but more contagious once infected than those over 20 years old.
- Children and adolescents are also as likely as adults to develop symptoms but much less likely to have severe disease.
For a long time, children appeared as small contaminators of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. A new study published on January 18 in the journal The Lancet and conducted on several thousand cases, she estimated that children are as many contaminators as adults. “Children are potentially important in the chain of transmission”, even concluded Ramanan Laxminarayan, principal researcher responsible for the study, at theAFP.
Young people, as many symptoms, fewer serious forms
The study was carried out in China on a panel of 29,578 positive cases in Wuhan. The researchers were the contact cases of people who tested positive. They found that these cases were spread across 27,101 households, resulting in a total of 57,581 contacts within those households. Of these, 10,367 later tested positive and 17,556 were untested. The researchers then dissected these different patients according to age groups.
The researchers observed that “while children and adolescents are less susceptible to infection than adults, they are more contagious once infected than those over 20. Cases under 20 are almost 60% more likely to infect others than cases 60 or older.” Children and adolescents would also be as likely as adults to develop symptoms but much less likely to have severe disease, the researchers noted. Results that confirm those of a study published on September 30 in the journal Science where infected young people under the age of 17 represented 8% of the total cases, contaminating 10% of the contact cases, when the 18-29 year olds constituted 23% of the cases and contaminated 23% of the contact cases.
Vaccinate children?
These results raise questions about the vaccination strategy from which children are currently excluded. “For the moment, it is not on the program”, Olivier Véran told France Inter January 19. A change in the vaccine strategy could occur “if the situation were to change and the data appear“, however, specified the Minister. Alain Fischer, who coordinates the government’s vaccine strategy against Covid-19, has shown himself to be rather favorable to the vaccination of children. “Maybe one day we will have to vaccinate children“, he said in The Parisian from January 16th.
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