Children's immune system better at fighting infection
Children suffer less than adults from coronavirus because their immune systems are built to protect them from diseases they have not encountered before, research has shown.
Children’s immune systems have evolved to protect the body against unfamiliar pathogens by rapidly destroying them before they harm the body, according to the study in
Science Translational Medicine. In the more developed immune system of adults, the response to new pathogens, such as SARSCoV-2, is muted.
When the human body detects a foreign pathogen, an innate immune response is triggered.
Children are more likely to encounter pathogens new to their immune system, so their defence system responds more quickly.
“[Children] do respond differently immunologically to this virus, and it seems to protect the kids,” said Dr Betsy Herold, a paediatric infectious disease expert at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who led the study.
Over time, the body builds up a “memory” of known threats. This means that when adulthood is reached, the immune system responds in a more targeted way. As we age, our innate immune response fades. Speaking to
The New York
Times, Dr Michael Mina, a paediatric immunologist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Epidemiology in Boston, said the adaptive system makes sense biologically, because adults rarely encounter a virus for the first time. But the virus that causes Covid-19 is new to humans, meaning an innate immune response is the best way to combat its threat.
By the time an adult’s adaptive immune response has begun, the damage caused by the virus has already occurred, claims Dr Herold’s research.
The study examined immune response in 60 adults and 65 youngsters under 24 who were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in New York City. It found that the younger cohort were much less likely to suffer severe symptoms.
[Children] do respond differently immunologically to this virus, and it seems to protect the kids