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So far, children account for a very small percentage of the more than 200,000 deaths similar to the new coronavirus in the United States so far, and according to a new study, a key difference may be why young people are not as severely affected by the virus as adults.
How coronavirus affects children, new findings
According to statistics compiled through the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association, as of September 10, states had reported a total of 105 deaths among others inflamed by coronavirus under the age of 20. 18 states had not reported a single Death among a user inflamed by coronavirus under the age of 20.
In addition, the CDC’s Covid-19 tracker, which lately includes information through September 28, shows that officials have reported a total of 92 deaths among others under the age of 18 inflamed by coronavirus. These 92 deaths make up 0. 06% of the 146,643. general deaths for which the age organization that the CDC knew about was known on its website.
A new study published last week in Science Translational Medicine could clarify why young people inflamed by coronavirus are more likely to die from the pathogen as adults.
For the study, researchers observed immune responses to the new coronavirus in 60 adults and immune responses observed in 65 other people under the age of 24, whom the study classified as young. Researchers reported that 20 of the patients included in the study were young people who had developed a multisistmic inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), which is a rare and life-threatening disease that has been linked to the new coronavirus. All patients involved in the study were admitted to Montefiore Medical Center between March 13 and May 17. .
Researchers found that, in general, the young people included in the study were only affected by the virus compared to adult patients. For example, researchers reported that only five of the young people needed ventilation, compared to 22 of the adults. , two of the young men died, compared to 17 of the adults.
The researchers concluded that the most likely explanation for why young people were less affected by coronavirus was how their immune formula reacted to the pathogen.
When an immune formula comes into contact with an unknown pathogen, an innate immune reaction is triggered in which the body reacts temporarily to remove the foreign substance, reports the New York Times and, as the Times reports, because young people are more likely to find pathogens unknown to their immune formulas, their innate immune reactions are immediate and strong.
By comparison, as other people age, their bodies expand a more specialized immune reaction formula reminiscent of the pathogens they have encountered before. As a result, the innate immune reaction fades, The Times reports.
The researchers hypothesized that because the new coronavirus has never been found before, other people with a weaker innate immune reaction formula are more vulnerable to the virus. They claimed that their studies supported this theory, as they found that the young people in the study had higher grades of two immune molecules, interleukin 17A and interferon gamma, compared to the adult participants.
Betsy Herold, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at albert Einstein Medical School who led the study, said, “We believe this protects these young children, especially from serious respiratory diseases, because that’s the main difference between adults and children. “
Some experts said the researchers’ findings deserve to be interpreted cautiously, because they believe the test was done well, they also believed that researchers had recruited patients who were too complex in their coronavirus infections for the effects to be conclusive.
Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University, explained that innate immune responses occur hours after a user is exposed to a pathogen and that patients sometimes do not seek hospital care for Covid-19 symptoms until about a week after being infected with the new coronavirus. . At this stage, it is too far away because of the way the innate immune formula responded to the virus, Iwasaki said. “By the time other people are sick, he’s already got over that moment. “
Michael Mina, a pediatric immunologist at Harvard’s THChan School of Epidemiology, said the effects recommend that if the new coronavirus becomes endemic (similar to other coronaviruses that cause the cold), young people can simply expand an immune defense strong enough to never find any of the adult problems. Currently experiencing the new coronavirus.
This means that “[we] will grow old from this virus,” Mina said (Mandavilli, New York Times, 25/9; Owens, “Vitals”, Axios, 28/9; Bernstein, Washington Post, 25/9).
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