Just before returning to school, a new and particularly worrying study is published • "Children can spread the disease for a long time without symptoms" • The surgery raises questions about the survival of the virus

A medical study conducted in South Korea showed that children can carry the corona virus in their nose and throat for weeks - even though they have not shown symptoms of the disease. The results, according to the researchers who published their findings in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, "explain why the virus is spreading so widely without early signs." In fact, "93 percent of children who carry the virus in their bodies would be missed and not identified as carriers, if the tests were done only on patients with symptoms."

The spread of the corona in the world - archive

Along with the study, a supplementary article was published by Dr. Roberta Dibsey and Dr. Meghan Delaney, researchers from the National Children's Hospital in Washington, who did not participate in the study. "This study is consistent with the data that about 40 percent of adults exposed to the virus show no signs of its presence within them and therefore quietly pass on the disease," they noted.

The publication comes as the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) changed the guidelines regarding corona testing and stated that the carriers of people who do not experience symptoms associated with the virus should not be tested, even if they have been in real contact with a verified patient. The scientist, who fears that the corona is also transmitted through humans who are not actually sick.

"Carriers for long periods of time"

In this regard, said Dr. Sally Goza, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): "We know that children are not vaccinated against the corona and that some do show slight or no injury at all - and still testing people who have been exposed to the corona and show no signs is critical in the fight. To prevent distribution. "

As mentioned, the study done in South Korea examined 91 children who were exposed to the virus when some did not get sick at all, some showed mild symptoms and some got sick. Eventually, within 36 days of exposure, approximately 78 percent of children showed a symptom or multiple symptoms of corona including fever, abdominal pain, or diarrhea. The American researchers commented: "The findings show that children are real carriers for long periods of time, and they may spread the disease in unclear ranges to the end."

In real time, only 8.5 percent of children were diagnosed with corona. Although some of them developed different symptoms, these were not identified as blue. Worse, some children develop symptoms only after the test over a long period of time. "Children can spread the disease in the community even for a long period of time without any warning signs - which makes our approach right now wrong," the supplementary article concludes.

"The virus remains with them even after they have fully recovered"

Even more severe are the findings that the virus is present in the subjects for an average of 17.6 days, while in some - who were not sick at all - the virus was detected for 14 days. "Since we have no information when the children were exposed, the virus was in their bodies for longer than expected," the researchers claim.

Professor Klum Sample from the University of Liverpool, who read the study and did not participate in it, somewhat dispels the concerns: "If children do not sneeze, then even if they are carriers of the virus they are less likely to spread it. Therefore, the concern is less." Either way, the current study reinforces the need for further testing and in-depth research to find out how much the corona survives in children and how many of them who are not diagnosed as having symptoms or who have mild hallmarks may be super-spreaders of the disease.