Children account for a small proportion of diagnoses of SARS-CoV-2 infection and do not exhibit greater viral loads than adults

Philippe Colson (1, 2) , Herve Tissot-Dupont (1, 2) , Aurelie Morand (1, 3) , Celine Boschi (2, 1) , Laetitia Ninove (2, 4) , Vera Esteves-Vieira (2) , Philippe Gautret (5, 2) , Philippe Brouqui (1, 2) , Philippe Parola (5, 2) , Jean-Christophe J.-C. Lagier (1, 2) , Christine Zandotti (4, 2) , Matthieu Million (1, 2) , Bernard La Scola (1, 2) , Didier Raoult (1, 2)

1 MEPHI - Microbes évolution phylogénie et infections
2 IHU Marseille - Institut Hospitalier Universitaire Méditerranée Infection
3 Service de pédiatrie spécialisée et médecine infantile (neurologie, pneumologie, maladies héréditaires du métabolisme) [Hôpital de la Timone - APHM]
4 UVE - Unité des Virus Emergents
5 VITROME - Vecteurs - Infections tropicales et méditerranéennes

Previous reports have suggested that children are less affected than adults by SARS-CoV-2. We analyzed SARS-CoV-2 diagnoses between February 27, 2020, and March 14, 2020, and mortality among positive patients in Marseille university hospitals. Of 4050 tested individuals, 228 were positive. Deaths occurred in 2/99 documented cases (both > 85 year-old). Children were majorly asymptomatic. Incidence increased by 7.4-fold between 1-5 and 45-65 years then decreased. It was significantly lower among 0-1 year- (0%) and 1-5 (1.1%) and 5-10 (3.6%)-year-old children than among subjects > 18 years (6.5%). Viral loads did not differ between children and adults. Children may not contribute significantly to virus circulation.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Philippe Colson, Herve Tissot-Dupont, Aurelie Morand, Celine Boschi, Laetitia Ninove, et al.. Children account for a small proportion of diagnoses of SARS-CoV-2 infection and do not exhibit greater viral loads than adults. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2020, 39 (10), pp.1983-1987. ⟨10.1007/s10096-020-03900-0⟩. ⟨hal-03149723⟩