Experts fail to find single case of a child passing on virus to adult
Medical review suggests juveniles appear to be less affected and ‘do not play significant role’ in spread
‘From around the world we are not seeing evidence that children are involved in spreading the virus’
Hayley Dixon
NO CHILD has been found to have passed coronavirus to an adult, a review of the evidence in partnership with the Royal College of Paediatrics has found. Major studies into the impact of Covid-19 on young children suggest they “do not play a significant role” in spreading the virus and are less likely to become infected than adults.
While experts insist that more evidence is needed, they note that there has not been a single case of a child under 10 transmitting the virus, even in contact tracing carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Public health officials in Switzerland have announced that under-10s can hug their grandparents again because they pose them no risk. Now a review in partnership with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has found that the evidence “consistently demonstrates reduced infection and infectivity of children in the transmission chain”.
Led by Dr Alasdair Munro, a clinical research fellow in paediatric infectious diseases, the research concluded: “Covid-19 appears to affect children less often, and with less severity, including frequent asymptomatic or subclinical infection. There is evidence of critical illness, but it is rare.
“The role of children in transmission is unclear, but it seems likely they do not play a significant role.”
The review by the Don’t Forget the
Bubbles paediatric research project added: “Notably, the China/who joint commission could not recall episodes during contact tracing where transmission occurred from a child to an adult.”
Among the evidence is a study of a nine-year-old British boy who contracted coronavirus in the French Alps but did not pass it on, despite having contact with more than 170 people at three schools. The boy, who was among the cases linked to Steve Walsh, the first Briton to test positive, also had influenza and a common cold which he passed to both of his siblings, but neither picked up Covid-19.
Kostas Danis, an epidemiologist at Public Health France who carried out that study, said the fact that children developed a milder form of the diseases may explain why they did not transmit the virus. While he said that it was possible children could infect others, there had not been a case to date and there was “no evidence that closing schools is an effective measure”. Further evidence from China showed when families had contracted the virus, children were “unlikely to be the index case”.
Professor Russell Viner, the president of the RCPCH, said: “From around the world we are not seeing evidence that children are involved in spreading or transmitting the virus, but we do not have enough evidence.” But he said it was too soon to say children could hug their grandparents, particularly as over70s are the most vulnerable group.