Coronavirus infects only FOUR percent of children, study finds

Children are much less likely to suffer from Covid-19, a new study has confirmed, with just four percent of children admitted to hospital testing positive for the virus.

The reason why children are less affected by the coronavirus than adults remains unknown, but it is believed to be due to how their immune system reacts after infection.

The research looked at the test results of more than 135,000 children admitted to seven US hospitals by September 8.

It found that only 5,374 (4.0 percent) of the patients tested positive and, of that small percentage, only 359 (6.7 percent) were hospitalized, of which 99 required intensive care.

Eight of the infected patients (0.15%) later died. Six of the deaths were from patients with “complex pre-existing comorbidities,” the scientists said.

The study comes from doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who examined electronic medical records from seven different children’s hospitals in the United States.

The average age of the patients was almost nine years old, but they ranged from less than a year to legal adults over the age of 18.

A history of certain factors increased the likelihood of a positive test, the data shows.

For example, people with a history of heart problems were 18% more likely to test positive, and a history of mental health was linked to a 20% increase in risk.

However, a history of asthma or other respiratory conditions was not associated with an increase in positive test results.

White children made up 60 percent of all admissions but only made up 40 percent of positive cases.

Hispanics, blacks and Asians accounted for a disproportionate number of infections.

“Although black, Hispanic and Asian patients were significantly less likely to be tested, these groups had a markedly increased chance of testing positive,” the researchers write in their study, published in the journal JAMA Paediatrics.

Black children are 2.66 times more likely than average to test positive, with Hispanics and Asians 3.75 and 2.04 times more likely to be infected, respectively.

Patients with long-term progressive disease were almost six times more likely to develop serious disease after infection.

“Although the overall risk is low in this group of children, we are seeing significant disparities in those who test positive and develop severe disease, which follows what we see in adults,” said the author of study, Dr. Hanieh Razzaghi.

A recent study found that children can test negative for Covid-19 even if they live with infected parents, show mild symptoms and create antibodies.

In an Australian family of five, two parents were infected with the coronavirus and passed it on to their three children, but neither of them have ever tested positive.

While the adults developed classic symptoms such as cough, fever, and headache, two of the children only had very mild symptoms and the youngest was completely asymptomatic despite sleeping in the same bed as the parents.

However, all five had the same immune response, with specific antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, responsible for Covid-19, found in everyone’s blood and saliva samples.

But despite this, none of the children have ever tested positive for Covid-19 in PCR swabs from the throat and nose, considered the gold standard for detecting infection.

Researchers say the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) case study in Melbourne indicates that children can develop a strong response against the virus once it enters their bodies, preventing it from replicating, limiting its power.

Another research, from UCL and the Francis Crick Institute, found that 44% of those under 16 have antibodies designed to fight the common cold that also neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

Scientists are currently unable to explain why the presence of these antibodies to cross viruses differs in adults and children.