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Coughing child: "Do not pass on infectious diseases to others"
Photo: pinstock / Getty Images
According to a study from the USA, children who have been infected with the Corona variant Omicron are contagious for an average of about three days after the positive test. That's slightly shorter than adults, who, according to another study, are infectious for about five days on average when they have an Omicron infection.
But about one in five children can still infect others on the fifth day, the US researchers write in the renowned journal "JAMA Pediatrics", about one in 25 children even on the tenth day. The duration of infectivity was independent of the child's vaccination status.
The researchers, a team led by Neeraj Sood from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics in Los Angeles and Stanford University, examined nasal swabs from 76 children and adolescents between the ages of 7 and 18 who tested positive for Corona over a period of ten days. In the laboratory, the samples were tested for infectivity. All participants were infected with Omicron. In Germany, as in other countries, Omicron sublineages such as EG.5 and XBB.1.16 are currently circulating.
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Infectiologist Jana Schroeder, chief physician of the Institute for Hospital Hygiene and Microbiology of the Mathias Foundation in Rheine, advises again this winter to be considerate of others: "We have learned so much about infectious diseases during the pandemic that we can now also apply this knowledge to protect ourselves and others," she says in response to an inquiry from SPIEGEL. We should "all take care of each other a little bit" this winter, Schroeder said. It is "a sensible and enlightened behavior not to pass on one's infectious diseases and those of one's children to others, but to stay at home or wear a tight-fitting mask until no one is infected anymore."
The Professional Association of Paediatricians and Adolescent Physicians (BVKJ) currently recommends leaving a child at home for as long as he or she feels ill, has fever or diarrhoea or vomits for Corona as well as normal colds. After 24 hours without symptoms, they can go back to daycare or school.
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