As the number of Covid-19 cases rises worldwide, parents trying to protect their children from the disease can take solace in one thing: the disease has generally been milder in children.
“Its pretty clear from all of the data who is ending up in hospital and who is dying. Severe disease is very rare in children, Its not yet completely clear whether this is because children are not being infected as regularly or do they just not get sick. Some of these children have a large amount of virus but they weren’t very sick,” said Williams.
Last week, there was a paper released from the Chinese Centers of Disease Control looking at people getting sick and who they had come into contact with, which suggested the rates of infection in children are just as common as in adults. The new research also suggested that perhaps the virus could be shed in fecal matter from children.
“People have looked at this a lot for SARS-CoV2 in adults and children and have found viral RNA in the stool, its not currently clear what this means – the secretions from our nose, respiratory viruses go into our esophagus to be swallowed, happens constantly with respiratory viruses,” said Williams, noting that there is evidence of other respiratory viruses in the stools of infected individuals.
“The question is, can it be transmitted to others via fecal material? This is likely most relevant with kids with diapers. All of us can have low level experience exposure of fecal material by poor hand washing but the only time you’re really exposed to a lot of fecal material is when we are changing kids diapers,” said Williams
However just because genetic traces from viruses are found in fecal matter does not mean that contact with fecal matter can make people sick. The viruses could be dead meaning that they can no longer infect people, but can still be picked up.
“This is really in contrast to a virus like norovirus (cruise ship virus) where people shed billions of virus particles in their fecal material and its easily transmitted person to person,” said Williams.
To prove that virus from fecal material could actually infect others, scientists would need to culture it from fecal samples in a special biosafety containment area, but these experiments have not yet been done. So overall, should parents be reassured by this study?
“Yes, I think so. It’s a small study, but every large or small piece of data we are getting suggests kids don’t get severe disease from this virus, although they get infected at similar rates and they might be spreaders of the virus,” said Williams.
However, there are many unknowns about coronavirus, and research is ongoing. Here is what we know now.
Can children catch coronavirus?
Yes. They can be infected with and appear to be able to transmit coronavirus, even if they do not have symptoms. That is why it is important for children to practice social distancing and hand-washing, even if they do not appear ill.
How does coronavirus affect children?
It is generally believed to cause milder symptoms in children, but the specific impacts by age are becoming clearer as the outbreak goes on.
Much of what we know today is based on reports out of China, where the outbreak began. There 2.4% of all identified cases were in children under 19 years old. An even smaller number within this group of children had severe symptoms, 2.5%, or what the World Health Organization (WHO) described as “a very small proportion”. But more research is being done and a clearer picture is still emerging.
Why does coronavirus affect children differently?
That remains unknown. Dr Jay C Butler, deputy director of infectious disease at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “The phenomenon is very significant,” on a live-streamed show hosted by the Journal of the American Medical Association, but that the mechanisms are “really unknown”.
People aged 60 and older or with existing health conditions remain the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. That includes people with conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory conditions, according to the WHO.
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