China News Service, June 13th. According to Singapore’s “Lianhe Zaobao” report on the 13th, a community study in the United States showed that the viral load of children and adults with COVID-19 symptoms are similar, which means that children infected with COVID-19 are infectious May be as tall as an adult.

On May 12th, local time, at the COVID-19 vaccination site at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team, people lined up for vaccination.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan

Study: Children and adults have similar viral loads

　　Since the outbreak of the new crown virus, adults have been considered to be more susceptible to the new crown virus than children.

Their symptoms are more severe and they are more contagious.

　　However, this trend is now beginning to change.

The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that since the beginning of May, one out of every five newly diagnosed cases in the United States has been a child.

Researchers believe that this may be related to a variant virus.

　　The University of Washington research team therefore analyzed the data of 555 patients infected with the new crown virus from November 9, 2020 to March 23, 2021, and published the study in JAMA Pediatrics result.

　　These patients included 123 children and adolescents under the age of 18, and 432 adults.

Among them, 47 children did not show any symptoms, accounting for 38% of the total number of children; 31 adults were asymptomatic patients, accounting for 7% of the total number of adults.

　　Infected children will have two or less symptoms on average, the most common being runny nose, fever and cough.

Adults have an average of four or more symptoms. The most common symptoms are headache, cough, fatigue, and muscle and body pain.

　　However, regardless of whether they have symptoms or not, nasal and throat samples taken by children and adults after undergoing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing have shown that their viral loads are similar.

Data map: The Saturday Farmers Market in the "Memorial Village" community in Houston, USA attracts many customers.

Compared with adults, children are contagious for a shorter period of time

　　Zhu Hailun of the University of Washington, one of the co-authors of the report, said: “On the whole, the viral load of symptomatic patients is higher than that of asymptomatic patients... However, when you study these groups (you will find), no matter what With or without symptoms, the viral load of children and adults are the same."

　　Zhu Hailun pointed out that there have been many controversies about school resumption and whether children will spread the virus. They therefore hope that this research can help answer related questions.

　　She showed that the viral load of infected children may be similar to that of adults, but compared with adults, children may be contagious for a shorter period of time. She said: "Overall, from a demographic perspective, (children) are less likely to spread the virus than adults."