Statistics show children as one of the populations with the fewest records for infections with Covid-19.
A study published recently by the specialized journal Nature reports that the scientific community is “puzzled” by this trend. In the case of Colombia, the National Institute of Health (INS) records that as of December 12 there have been 24,020 infections among early childhood (0 to 5 years), 33,871 in childhood (6 to 11 years) and 60,757 in adolescents (12 to 18 years).
It should be borne in mind that in Colombia, 1,417,072 cases of Covid-19 have been registered to date since the start of the pandemic. In Barranquilla, the population belonging to early childhood registers a total of 903 confirmed cases, childhood 1,261 and adolescence 2,024 cases out of the 47,918 positive cases documented up to December 12 throughout the country.
Columbia University immunologist Donna Farber says that children’s bodies are very well equipped to respond to new viruses. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the expert says that in most cases children experience a “mild or asymptomatic disease.”
According to the immunologist Melanie Neeland, the children’s immune system perceives the virus and immediately generates a “really fast and effective immune response that turns it off”, that is, according to the expert, despite the children being infected by the PCR tests they could give a negative result.
“Even in children who experienced the serious but rare complication called multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, studies report that the rate of positive results on RT-PCR ranges from only 29% to 50%. ”.
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