![]() ![]() Ralf Reintjes, professor of epidemiology at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, explained to CNBC that children's immune systems have a number of advantages when it comes to fighting infections. The most common virus children get are innocuous colds and these are commonly caused by several types of virus including rhinoviruses (the most common cause of the common cold) as well as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and coronaviruses.Ĭoronaviruses are a family of viruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses in humans but several, including Covid-19 and SARS and MERS, have emerged as global health threats. "That being said, we also know that children are more susceptible (than adults) to the Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome which is an overactive immune response to Covid-19, resulting usually in excessive inflammation in organs other than the lung (usually the heart/circulatory system and gastrointestinal tract)."Īnother advantage children have is their greater exposure to viruses, particularly during term time when viruses are able to spread easily among children at school. Kristin Mondy, a division chief of infectious diseases at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas, told CNBC that "out of the many hypotheses currently circulating in the literature, the best evidence to date supports the hypothesis and findings that children have a stronger innate immune response compared to adults, particularly in nasal mucosal tissue where immune cells can more rapidly control and eradicate the virus compared to adults." ![]() Meanwhile in adults, the researchers saw a less rapid immune response which meant the virus "was better able to invade other parts of the body where the infection was harder to control." Research carried out by the Wellcome Sanger Institute and University College London, and published in the Nature journal in December, found a stronger "innate" immune response in the airways of children, characterized by the rapid deployment of interferons - which are released in the presence of viral or bacterial threats and help to restrict viral replication early on - UCL said. There have been several recent studies looking at the difference between adults' immune response to Covid, and children's, and these have found fundamental differences between the two with the latter having a more robust and "innate" immune response. Having certain underlying medical conditions can also make adults more likely to get severely ill. In particular, the risk increases for people in their 50s and increases again for those in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, with people 85 and older the most likely to get very sick. He noted more research will be required before we have a definitive answer but a body of evidence has already emerged showing that Covid poses a much smaller risk to kids, and why that might be. "A number of theories have been suggested, including a more effective innate immune response, less risk of immune over-reaction as occurs in severe Covid, fewer underlying co-morbidities and possibly fewer ACE-2 receptors in the upper respiratory epithelium - the receptor to which SARS-CoV-2 binds," Dr. Andrew Freedman, an academic in infectious diseases at the U.K.'s Cardiff University Medical School, told CNBC in emailed comments, adding that nonetheless the phenomenon was not "fully understood." ![]() Scientists are still somewhat baffled as to why children are not badly affected by Covid, although studies are slowly shedding light on how, and why, children's responses to Covid differ from those among adults. Mercifully, few of those patients were children, posing a mystery for public health experts as to why kids were not becoming severely ill or dying with Covid. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit ![]()
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