Coronavirus Latest News: Experts Warn That Children Can Harbor Active Virus For Weeks In Their Respiratory Tract And Shed The Virus
Source: Coronavirus Latest News Aug 30, 2020 5 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 7 hours, 58 minutes ago
Coronavirus Latest News: Researchers from the Children’s National Hospital and Research Institute-Washington DC and the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in an editorial review published in the JAMA Pediatrics journal are warning that numerous studies are showing that in majority of children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, even though they might only suffer mild symptoms or remain asymptomatic, the active virus remains in their respiratory tracks for longer duration that adults, in some cases for weeks and are still shedding the virus.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2770149?utm_campaign=articlePDF&utm_medium=articlePDFlink&utm_source=articlePDF&utm_content=jamapediatrics.2020.3996
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In a quoted study that was conducted in South Korea, the study proved that children can carry coronavirus in their noses and throats for weeks even if they don't show any symptoms, which might explain how the virus can spread silently.
That study findings were also published in the journal: JAMA Pediatrics.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2770150
Corresponding author of the Korean study, Dr Jong-Hyun Kim, MD, PhD from the Department of Pediatrics, St Vincent's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, told Thailand Medical News, “In this case series study, inapparent infections in children may have been associated with silent COVID-19 transmission in the community.”
In this case series of 91 children with COVID-19 in Korea, 22.0% were found to be asymptomatic. Only 8.5% of symptomatic cases were diagnosed at the time of symptom onset, while 66.2% had unrecognized symptoms before diagnosis and 25.4% developed symptoms after diagnosis; SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected for a mean of 17.6 days overall and 14.1 days in asymptomatic cases.
Dr Kim added, “Symptom screening fails to identify most COVID-19 cases in children, and SARS-CoV-2 RNA in children is detected for an unexpectedly long time.”
Dr Roberta DeBiasi and Dr Meghan Delaney, both of Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, wrote in an accompanying editorial, "Interestingly, this study aligns with adult data in which up to 40% of adults may remain asymptomatic in the face of infection."
Both who were not involved in the research further added and warned, "In this study, the authors estimate that 85 infected children (93%) would have been missed using a testing strategy focused on testing of symptomatic patients alone.”
Interestingly, the study comes out at a time when the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been criticized for changing its guidelines on asymptomatic testing, which the American Academy of Pediatrics called "a dangerous step backward" in a statement last Friday
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