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QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Tech and Science -> 
New Chinese research points to possible role of children in coronavirus spread
    2020-03-30  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

CHILDREN tend to get less severe symptoms when they contract Covid-19 and cases can be harder to detect than in adults, new research in China has found, as health experts, parents and officials weigh the risks of sending their kids to school.

A study of 36 cases in children in the eastern province of Zhejiang found that 10 — or 28 percent — had no symptoms, while seven had mild upper respiratory symptoms, according to a paper published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases on Wednesday.

Separate research published this month in The New England Journal of Medicine had similar results. It found that of 171 children who contracted the new coronavirus in Wuhan, where it was first reported in December, 27 — or 15.8 per cent — were asymptomatic, or had no immediate symptoms. Another 12 showed features of pneumonia in their medical scans, but not symptoms of infection.

“The large proportion of asymptomatic children indicates the difficulty in identifying paediatric patients who do not have clear epidemiological information, leading to a dangerous situation in community-acquired infections,” the researchers in the Zhejiang study said.

China last week declared it had “basically stopped” domestic transmission of the virus after imposing two months of lockdowns and mass quarantine measures around the country. Several provinces — including Guizhou, Qinghai and Yunnan — have already reopened some schools, and more provinces are preparing to resume classes in early to mid-April. But education authorities in Beijing and the southern province of Guangdong have yet to set a date for schools to reopen.

Canadian medical experts Alyson Kelvin and Scott Halperin said the Zhejiang research pointed to the potential role of children in spreading the virus.

“The most important finding to come from the present analysis is the clear evidence that children are susceptible to infection, but frequently do not have notable disease, raising the possibility that children could be facilitators of viral transmission,” they wrote in a comment in the journal.

The study, led by Song Qifa of the Ningbo Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Chen Dong of Wenzhou Central Hospital, looked at a group of children aged between 1 and 16 who fell sick from mid-January to the end of February.

The children were all from the cities of Ningbo and Wenzhou and accounted for 5 percent of the total cases in those places during that period.

Nearly half of them were mild cases and the rest were moderate, and they all recovered after an average of 14 days in hospital. Those with immediate symptoms tended to have a fever and dry cough.

(SD-Agencies)

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