Age-Related Differences in Nasopharyngeal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Levels in Patients With Mild to Moderate Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Abstract

had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of COVID-19 in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Furthermore, the shedding of SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract of pediatric patients lasted 11.43 days, which is comparable with adults (13). A Chicago study showed that children with COVID-19 younger than 5 years old had 10-100 times viral load compared with children more than 5 years old and adults with COVID-19 (14). A series of 228 diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infections in France indicated that the incidence of COVID-19 infection increased by 7.4-fold in children between 1 and 5 years old (15).…”

Potential Role of Children in the Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Catalonia (Spain)

“…The first pediatric case of COVID-19 was identified on March 10th, 2020; by May 31st, 158 cases of children under 18 years had been reported, with a median [IQR] age of 12 [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] years (table 1). Temporal distribution showed two different time-peaks, the first in the second half of March likely secondary to infections acquired before lock-down measures, and the second through the second half of April 2020 till the end of May likely due to the increased number of RT-PCR performed between March (n=987) and May (n=8,073) (figure 1 and figure 2).…”

“…Also, in the Netherlands periodic reports from the National Institute of Public Health showed that patients under 20 years play a smaller role in the spread of the infection than adults [5]. However, studies exclusively based on SARS-CoV-2 viral load in respiratory samples suggest a possible role of children in SARS-CoV-2 transmission, even when asymptomatic [6,7].…”

The Role of Children in SARS-CoV-2 Transmission

“…In a cross-sectional single-centre study in 145 consecutive patients, with mild to moderate symptomatic COVID-19, Heald-Sargent et al found that children younger than 5 years of age had higher SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in their nasopharyngeal swabs than children aged 5 to 17 years and adults. 12 A limitation of the study was that asymptomatic children infected with SARS-CoV-2 were not included.…”

“…9,10 This caused some to prematurely conclude that children are considerably less important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 transmission than adults. 11 However, recent reports have suggested high viral loads in nasopharyngeal swabs of symptomatic young children, 12 and a high degree of transmission among children and adolescents attending an overnight youth camp. 13…”