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- A baby in Washington, DC with COVID-19 contained 51,418 times more viral particles than typical patients.
- Researchers later discovered that the infection was a new variant of COVID-19, seen in at least eight other cases.
- It is not clear whether this variant is more dangerous for children and more research is needed.
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A new variant of coronavirus has appeared.
A very sick newborn, treated at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, was found to have not only a new variant of the novel coronavirus, but a 51,418 times higher viral load than other young patients, according to the Washington Post .
The new variant was identified recently when researchers sequenced the genome of the baby’s virus, which was treated in September and recovered, Ariana Eunjung Cha reported from the Post.
It’s unclear how common or risky this new variant could be. The database found eight more cases of this variant in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, according to a preprinted study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, on variations of coronavirus in children. .
According to the researchers, the variant has a different type of spike protein structure that can make it more infectious.
It is not clear whether this new variant explains the large number of viral particles detected in the infant’s nose.
“It could be a complete coincidence,” Roberta DeBiasi, head of infectious diseases at the National Children’s Hospital, told The Post. “But the association is pretty strong. If you see a patient who has exponentially more virus and it’s a completely different variant, it’s probably related.”
Many questions remain about how the coronavirus affects children
Children are less likely to have severe cases of COVID-19, according to national data. Very young children may be less likely to infect others when they become ill, although the CDC still suggests that anyone could potentially spread the disease.
But researchers still don’t fully understand all the implications of the coronavirus for children and babies.
Over the past five months, the number of pediatric coronavirus cases has increased “dramatically,” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
Severe cases of COVID-19 in children are rare, but do exist and have been associated with serious and long-term side effects, including brain damage.
And we know that some children are more vulnerable than others – the death rate of children of color is much higher than that of their white peers. As of February 11, 241 children had died from COVID-19 and the vast majority were Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians or Alaskan Indians.
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