A study on the case of a 9-year-old child infected with the virus concludes that children are not much vectors of the disease. The boy, who had contracted covid-19 at Contamines-Montjoie in Haute-Savoie, did not pass it on to anyone in the three schools he attended.

At the end of January, a Briton returning from Singapore joined compatriots in a ski resort, including a family resident of the resort. In total, it will be at the origin of the contamination of twelve people including a nine year old child, creating one of the first foci of coronavirus in France. A study, published on April 11 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases , looked at the boy's case, who continued to attend three schools and a ski club before the health alert was issued, finding a low risk of contamination by children.

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The boy had mild symptoms 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 sick with 172 people, including 112 students and teachers. The latter were then all placed in quarantine at home because they were considered to be at high risk.

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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%).

"Different transmission dynamics"

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.

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"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 to AFP Kostas Danis, epidemiologist at Public Health France and author principal of this study.