IHowever, there have been few reported cases of infected children since the onset of the disease in late December in Wuhan, China.
Thus, according to the report of the joint China-WHO mission published at the end of February, only 2.4% of the more than 75,000 cases then confirmed in China concerned individuals under the age of 18.
And a very small proportion of these minors had developed a severe (2.5%) or critical (0.2%) form of the disease.
“They don’t seem to be very sick or to die from it,” says Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. But “we know that children are infected,” he told AFP.
Children “are just as likely to be infected as adults”, believes a study in which he participated, on the situation in Shenzhen, study published a few days ago without going through the usual review process by other scientists.
So why are children not showing up in the statistics?
Even infected, “the children are fine and do not go to the hospital, so they are not tested,” Sharon Nachman, professor at the Renaissance school of medicine at Stony Brooks Children’s Hospital, told AFP. from New York.
It is not yet clear why the little ones would only show mild symptoms, but experts are making several hypotheses.
“For them, any infection is a new infection”, comments Professor Nachman. “They see so many diseases in their early years that their immune system is developed and responds well to this new virus”, continues the specialist in pediatric infections, stressing however that the current absence of serious cases “does not mean that That will never happen”.
“It is not very clear, but in my opinion, (the mild symptoms) are linked to the fundamental biology of the virus and the types of cells it infects”, argues for his part Ian Jones, professor of virology at the British University of Reading.
In all cases, infected children, little ill, “will not self-confine or stay in bed (…), so the risk of them spreading the virus is greater”, he indicates. to AFP.
“Excessive reaction”?
A risk of spread which raises the question of the closure of schools decided in a massive way in certain countries, such as China or Italy, and now France.
Even if there is not “a single right answer”, “it is a very reasonable measure at this stage”, judges Sharon Nachman, believing that it can slow down the progression of the virus.
An argument put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron who announced the closure of all nurseries, schools and universities from Monday.
If the children are not all gathered in a school, they infect fewer adults at once, which avoids overloading hospitals.
“It helps to contain the spread of the epidemic but it creates other wider problems for society”, with children deprived of education and parents who cannot work, believes Dr. Thomas House for his part, from the University of Manchester.
It is even more problematic if the parents are caregivers, forced to stay at home rather than take care of the sick.
Other experts are even more critical, believing that in certain circumstances school closures are even counterproductive. For example, this risks pushing parents without a custody solution to entrust their little ones to grandparents, “a much more at-risk group,” said Prof. Keith O’Neal, epidemiologist at the University of Nottingham.
Speaking more specifically on the announcement of the closure of schools in Ireland, which has only about 40 cases, he said it was “too early to say whether this is a smart precaution or an overreaction to it. stage of the epidemic ”. “We do not yet know what role children play in the spread of the virus,” he insisted.
As for Unicef, it does not take a position on the decisions of States to close schools or not, but it is concerned about “the side effects of the epidemic and the measures to control it, on children, including closure of schools ”.
In a guide published Tuesday with the WHO and the Red Cross, the UN organization even believes that keeping schools open could help fight the spread of the virus by teaching children the barrier gestures that they can then explain to the rest of the population. their community.
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