Study: More than a third of children with COVID-19 have no symptoms

A University of Alberta study found that more than a third of children who contract COVID-19 are asymptomatic, indicating that many more children may be infected than previously thought.

The researchers stressed the importance of their data, saying there was probably a lot more COVID-19 in the community, as these children who do not develop the most common signs of cough, runny nose and aches throat, go undiagnosed.

“When we see reports of 1,200 new cases per day in the province of Alberta, that’s probably the tip of the iceberg – there are probably a lot of people out there who don’t know they have the disease and potentially spread it, ”said Dr. Finlay McAlister, an internist at the University of Alberta hospital, according to Science Magazine.

McAlister and his team studied the results of 2,463 young people who were tested for COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. They found that 1,987 children tested positive, but 35.9% were asymptomatic.

“This concerns all school safety programs,” said the expert. “We can do all the COVID-19 questionnaires we want, but if one-third of the children are asymptomatic, the answer will be no to all questions – yet they are still infected.

Early data downplayed the role of children in the coronavirus outbreak because they had few or no symptoms. But another recent study adds to the growing body of evidence that children can act as silent spreaders of COVID-19.

The latest evidence published in the Journal of Pediatrics revealed that some children have high levels of the virus in their airways, even if they are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. These levels appear to peak during the first three days of infection and can help spread disease in the community, especially when schools reopen.

“Some people thought that children could be protected,” said study author Dr. Alessio Fasano of the MassGeneral Hospital for Children, according to the Washington Post. “This is a mistake. They can be as sensitive as adults – but just invisible.”