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Across the world, there have been about 88,104 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) – 29 of which have been in Australia. Still, of those reported cases, there’s a piece of information that may be reassuring for parents – children seem to be experiencing “mild symptoms”.
Professor Robert Booy from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance said, “Those children who did contract the virus overseas have only had mild symptoms such as fever and upper respiratory symptoms.”
So what is coronavirus? The Australian Government Department of Health website says, “Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by a new virus. Symptoms range from a mild cough to pneumonia. Some people recover easily, and others may get very sick very quickly.”
Researchers have been doing their best to understand the coronavirus. Here’s what we know so far:
Speaking to NPR, Cody Meissner, an infectious-disease expert and professor of paediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine said: “So far, it appears that more than 80% of the infections are pretty mild, no more severe than the common cold.
“And children appear to have even milder infections than adults.”
It’s not clear why children seem to be safe from severe COVID-19 symptoms, but there are some theories.
Chief medical officer Dr Brendan Murphy said, “We don’t know whether children might be getting the disease but [their symptoms] are so mild they are not being picked up, or they’re not becoming sick, or whether they are somehow less susceptible.”
Another theory is from New York Times health reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr. Donald shared his opinion on a recent episode of the publication’s podcast The Daily. He said, “Kids have enormous numbers of these mild ‘coronaviruses’ because that’s the typical cold virus. Kids are the ones who get colds. You go to kindergarten, and you come back with a cold. So they may have some immunity from having somewhat similar but mild viruses circulating in the child population whereas all of us who had those viruses as kids, our immunities to those have waned.”
Sallie Permar, a professor of paediatrics and immunology at Duke University School of Medicine, told NPR that mothers might also be providing some protection. “Infants are born with maternal antibodies,” she said. “So whatever their mother had been exposed to, they may have some protection [against] when they’re first born.”
The sample sizes for all of the available research have been small, so more research is needed.
As Donald G. McNeil Jr. said in The Daily podcast, there’s still a lot we don’t know about coronavirus, including how it’s transferred.
That said, he does explain that it’s thought there are two main ways coronavirus spreads: coughing and touching surfaces; for example, if someone coughs on a surface and then someone else touches it. If they then touch their nose or rub their eyes, they might get it.
So what can parents and children be doing to prevent the spread of the virus?
According to the Australian Government Department of Health: “Practising good hand hygiene and sneeze/cough hygiene is the best defence against most viruses:
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