Coronavirus: Robust kids may still carry disease

Leading scientists say children should be tested for coronavirus or COVID-19 as they may be ‘asymptomatic shedders’.

Children wear surgical masks to protect themselves while watching the annual Lunar New Year Parade in Manhattan's Chinatown, New York. Picture: AFP

Scientists have observed that children are rarely becoming sick from the coronavirus, but should still be tested for the disease as they may be “asymptomatic shedders”.

A report by the American Medical Association has found the median age of patients diagnosed with the disease that has been named COVID-19 is between 49 and 56, and “cases in children have been rare”.

Robust immunity in children is likely to be the reason, experts say.

The phenomenon mirrors the pattern observed in the SARS epidemic, in which children accounted for between only 1-2 per cent of cases and, in those cases, rarely developed a severe case of the illness. No children died from SARS in 2002-03, and most of the 800 or so deaths in that outbreak were in people aged over 45, with men most at risk.

“The frequency of infection with this coronavirus in children is similar to that in adults but they don’t manifest with severe clinical illness in the way that adults do,” said Raina MacIntyre, head of the biosecurity program at the University of NSW’s Kirby Institute.

“Evidence in the scientific literature indicates that children might even be infected without symptoms, and are potentially able to transmit the disease.

“Children obviously have the ability to deal with the virus better and not to get severe illness. We see that with many infections.”

Infectious diseases specialist Sanjaya Senanayake said it was difficult to know how many children had been so far diagnosed with COVID-19.

“The confirmed cases we’re seeing are probably just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of people in the community who haven’t been diagnosed because they’ve had very mild illness. We assume children as a group may be among them,” said Professor Senanayake, of the Australian National University’s Medical School.

“Children have a fairly robust immunity and if you compare that to the people who are dying or getting very sick with the coronavirus, they tend to be older people with underlying conditions, so their immunity isn’t quite as good.”

The lack of susceptibility of children to COVID-19 also appears to extend to babies in utero.