Serological Profile of Children and Young Adults with at Least One SARS-CoV-2 Positive Cohabitant: An Observational Study

Abstract

At the end of 2019, a new disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 appeared in Wuhan Province in China. Children seemed to be infected less frequently than adults, and family clusters seemed to play an important role in the spread of the pandemic. The aim of this study is to evaluate the serological profile of children and young adults between 4 and 16 years of age in order to assess the transmission patterns of COVID-19 between cohabitants. The subjects lived with at least one cohabitant who tested positive for the disease using a nasopharyngeal swab. To avoid contact with the disease, families were interviewed by telephone. Forty-nine children and adolescents with a mean age of 11 years were then subjected to a rapid lateral flow chromatographic test. Of them, seven (14.3%) were immunoglobulin G (IgG)-positive, and four (8.2%) were immunoglobulin M (IgM)-positive. In total, 16.3% of the tested sample had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2: this may confirm the lower vulnerability of children to COVID-19, despite the small sample size. The time from the negativization of the cohabitant until the test day may have influenced the results, especially when this timeframe is wide.

Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 IgG Seroprevalence in Children and Factors Associated with Seroconversion: Results from a Multiple Time-Points Study in Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Italy

“…A first single time-point country-wide evaluation conducted at the end of the first peak in summer 2020 by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) highlighted a very low seroprevalence rate in the age group 0–17 years, ranging from 0.1% to 1.1% in North and Central Italy [ 5 ], but was not repeated afterwards. Other few studies were conducted, at either regional or local level [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], consistently showing, in line with the existing literature from other countries [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], lower seroprevalence rates in children compared to adults. However, all seroprevalence studies conducted in children in Italy [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ] only included a single time-point assessment.…”

A Single-Center (Sibiu, Romania), Retrospective Study (March–November 2020) of COVID-19 Clinical and Epidemiological Features in Children

“…More than 50% of infected children had close contact with family members with COVID-19. Spread of the infection in patients' families had also been reported in various studies [11,27,28].…”

Development of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for Accurate and Prompt Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Diagnosis Using the Rational Selection of Serological Biomarkers

“…Children are less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, presenting with no or milder symptoms [59,60]. Infants are generally at a higher risk of more severe disease [61][62][63].…”