Children account for a small proportion of diagnoses of SARS-CoV-2 infection and do not exhibit greater viral loads than adults
- 26 August 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
- Vol. 39 (10), 1983-1987
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-020-03900-0
Abstract
Previous reports have suggested that children are less affected than adults by SARS-CoV-2. We analyzed SARS-CoV-2 diagnoses between February 27, 2020, and March 14, 2020, and mortality among positive patients in Marseille university hospitals. Of 4050 tested individuals, 228 were positive. Deaths occurred in 2/99 documented cases (both > 85 year-old). Children were majorly asymptomatic. Incidence increased by 7.4-fold between 1–5 and 45–65 years then decreased. It was significantly lower among 0–1 year- (0%) and 1–5 (1.1%) and 5–10 (3.6%)-year-old children than among subjects > 18 years (6.5%). Viral loads did not differ between children and adults. Children may not contribute significantly to virus circulation.Keywords
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