February 8, 2021, 3:44 pm
Cooperations, scientific publications
Evaluation confirms preliminary results: In April and May 2020, there were very few undetected infections with SARS-CoV-2 as part of the study with 2,500 parent-child pairs, only one third of the people with previously undetected infections were younger children / / Work published in JAMA Pediatrics
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In the much-noticed parent-child COVID-19 study from spring 2020, scientists from the four university hospitals in Freiburg, Heidelberg, Tübingen and Ulm examined a total of 2,500 couples, each made up of one parent and one child aged one to ten years without previously proven infection. They investigated the question of how many people, especially children, were infected unnoticed at the time of the test (April 22 to May 15, 2020) or had already formed antibodies after a corona virus infection that had passed but went unnoticed. The results have now been published in the renowned journal JAMA Pediatrics. Overall, SARS-CoV-2 infections were rare in both children and adults during this first lockdown period. The seroprevalence (frequency) of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 was 1.8 percent in adults and 0.6 percent in children under 10 years of age. Accordingly, under lockdown conditions, significantly fewer children were infected with SARS-CoV-2 than adults.
The final evaluation of all tests confirms the preliminary results, which were presented on June 16, 2020 at a press conference of the state government. At the time, they served as the basis for the decision to reopen elementary schools and daycare centers after the first lockdown. The state of Baden-Württemberg initiated the study and financed it with around 1.2 million euros.
Among other things, the study was intended to clarify what role children play in the spread of the corona pandemic, whether they are infected as often as adults, but are able to promote the spread of the virus due to the symptoms that they usually have no or only very weak symptoms .
The study was able to dispel this fear: Less than a third of the people who tested positive for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, i.e. who had already been infected with the virus, were children under 10 years of age. Antibodies were found in a total of 48 adults and 22 children. The combination of a seropositive parent with a seronegative child (n = 34) was significantly (4.3 times) more frequent than the combination of a seronegative parent with a seropositive child (n = 8).
Only one parent-child pair among the approximately 5,000 study participants tested positive for the corona virus using RT-PCR at the time of the investigation. The conclusion for the period of the study: Children under 10 years of age not only seem to develop COVID-19 less often, but also to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 less often. The study thus provided no evidence that younger children could particularly promote the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus. From today’s perspective, there has been no indication in other national or international publications that schools or daycare centers pose a particular risk to the spread of the virus. However, this does not affect the fact that AH mask ventilation rules are also important and useful in schools and daycare centers. *
Contact:
Doris Rübsam-Brodkorb
Head of corporate communications
University Hospital and Medical Faculty Heidelberg
Tel. 06221 56-5052
[email protected]
Benjamin Waschow
Head of corporate communications
university hospital Freiburg
Tel. 0761 270-19090
[email protected]
Bianca Hermle
Head of Communication and Media
University Hospital Tübingen
Tel. 07071 29-81032
[email protected]
Nina Schnürer
Deputy Head of Corporate Communications
Ulm University Hospital
Tel. 0731 500-43025
[email protected]
Originalpublikation:
Tönshoff B, Müller B, Elling R, et al. Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and their parents in southwest Germany. JAMA Pediatrics, published online January 22, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.0001
Editorial: O’Leary ST. To Spread or Not to Spread SARS-CoV-2—Is That the Question? JAMA Pediatr. Published online January 22, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.0006
Further information:
https://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/newsroom/vorlaeufige-results-der-eltern-kind-covid-19-studie-in-baden-wuerttemberg/ Preliminary results of the parent-child COVID-19 study in Baden-Wuerttemberg
https://dgpi.de/stellungnahme-dgpi-dgkh-rolle-von-schulen-kitas-in-der-covid-19-pandemie/ *
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