Would children be little vectors for the disease? While carrying the coronavirus, a 9-year-old child did not transmit the virus to anyone in the three schools he attended in Contamines-Montjoie in Haute-Savoie, according to a study published this Monday in Liberation.
At the end of January, back from Singapore, a Briton on vacation in the resort is said to have contaminated twelve people, including a nine-year-old child, making the village one of the first homes (“cluster”) in France.
Very low viral load
A study, published on April 11 in the journal of the society of American infectious diseases (Clinical Infectious Diseases), revealed Monday by Liberation , looked into the case of the child, who continued to attend three schools and a ski- club before the health alert is given. This child had started mild symptoms of this new coronavirus and had a very low viral load eight days after the symptoms started.
After a quick and careful investigation by infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists, it quickly emerged that this young patient was in contact when he was ill with 172 people, including 112 pupils and teachers. The latter had all been placed in quarantine at home since they were considered to be at high risk.
“A different dynamics of transmission in children”
But in the end, this child did not contaminate anyone, not even the other two children of his siblings. On the other hand, other winter viruses such as the flu were detected in a majority of the "contact persons" tested (64%). This case "suggests that children may not be a significant source of transmission of this new virus" and suggests "a different dynamics of transmission in children", concludes the study.
While they are an important vector for other viruses such as the flu for example. "It is possible that children, because they do not have many symptoms and have a low viral load, transmit little of this new coronavirus", explains Kostas Danis, epidemiologist at Public Health France and main author of this study .
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