Experts: Reason unclear why few children get

As it continues its spread across Connecticut, the respiratory illness COVID-19 is going to sicken a lot of people. But there’s one group that might be less affected than the others — children.

Though it was announced Thursday that a student at Wilcoxson Elementary School in Stratford had tested positive for the illness, experts said that case is something of an outlier.

“You don’t hear a lot about kids getting this,” said Dr. Zane Saul, chief of infectious disease at Bridgeport Hospital. “You hear about seniors being at risk and, people with co-morbidities, but cases in kids are pretty limited.”

However, as evidenced by the case in Stratford, children do get COVID-19. And, Saul said, this likely won’t be the only case in a child in Connecticut as the outbreak progresses.

“As this becomes more widespread in the community, we’re going to see kids with cases, and most cases will be mild,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to hear about a lot of kids, but it’s going to happen.”

But when more cases pop up, either in the Stratford student’s classmates or elsewhere, they’re likely to be fairly mild, experts said. That’s been the case so far not just in the United States, but even in the places worldwide that have already been pummeled by the disease — including China, where it is believed to have originated.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among more than 44,000 patients in China who were confirmed to have COVID-19 as of Feb. 11, only 2.1 percent were younger than 20, and no deaths were reported among those younger than 10.

Italy is seeing a similar phenomenon, said Jacob Hen, Jr., a pediatric pulmnologist, with Northeast Medical Group, which is part of Yale New Haven Health. Hen, whose practice is based in Trumbull, said he has been in contact with a pediatric pulmonologist in Italy, which is under lockdown due to the vast spread of COVID-19 in that country.

But, even there — where sources have reported at least 15,000 cases and a thousand deaths — Hen said doctors have told him that the impact on children is minimal.

“There are hardly any kids in the hospital with virus and kids get a really mild illness,” he said. “No one knows why kids are doing better. This is sort of thing is unprecedented.”

Dr. Katherine Golar is also flummoxed by why children get

COVID-19 less frequently and less severely. Golar is chief medical officer of Optimus Health Care, which provides affordable health care for uninsured and underinsured people at its 31 locations throughout Southwest Connecticut (including Bridgeport, Stamford, Stratford and Milford). She said, both a doctor and a mother, she’s “very relieved” that the illness is less severe in children and, though she’s not sure why this is happening, it does make sense.

“Obviously, children are not just small adults,” Golar said. “Their bodies work differently than adults. And there’s something about that difference in their anatomy that is preventing (severe illness).”

Closing schools will help, Golar said, but children can still get the illness from adults in the community — and vice versa. She said the best thing is for everyone to avoid large groups, practice frequent hand-washing, and cleaning frequently-touched surfaces.

“Now is a great time to teach kids to clean their toys,” Golar said.

Brian Corn / KRT Health experts said that the case of COVID-19 in a Stratford elementary school student is unusual, because the disease hasn’t had that big an impact on children — and no one seems to know why.