Children develop long-term immunity to COVID-19

COVID-19 family study shows that asymptomatic courses of infection are five times more common in children than in adults. The immune response is also more stable than in adults, resulting in long-term immunity in children.

How does a COVID-19 infection work in children, are they protected after a mild course and what role do they play in the pandemic as sick people, sources of infection and intensifiers?

Scientists from the university hospitals in Freiburg, Heidelberg, Tübingen and Ulm as well as the Natural Science and Medical Institute NMI in Reutlingen have examined these central questions in the COVID-19 children study initiated and financed by the state of Baden-Württemberg.

They showed that children within the families were much less likely to be infected than adults and that the course was usually much milder. At the same time, the immune response in children was on average stronger and lasted longer than in adults, regardless of whether symptoms occurred. The results were published as a preprint on July 23, 2021 .

Note: Prior to formal publication in a scientific journal, scientific and medical articles are traditionally certified by so-called “peer reviews”. In this process, the editors of the journal seek advice from various experts – so-called “referees” – who have assessed the paper and possibly identify weaknesses in its assumptions, methods and conclusions.

Typically, a journal does not publish an article until the editors are satisfied that the authors have considered the concerns of the reviewers and that the data presented support the conclusions drawn in the paper.

However, since this process can be very tedious, authors use the so-called medRxiv service to make their manuscripts available to other scientists as a “preprint” before certification through peer review, so that they can see, discuss and comment on the results immediately.

Readers should be aware that articles on medRxiv are not finalized by their authors, may contain errors, and report information that has not yet been accepted or approved by the scientific or medical community.

Fewer symptoms, better immune protection

It was already suspected on the basis of international observations, but now it should be certain: the hospitalization rate for symptomatically ill children is generally much lower than for adults. However, the study also reveals that – regardless of symptoms – children also develop stronger and longer-lasting specific antibody levels after an infection.

For the study, 328 families with at least one member suffering from COVID-19 were examined several times.

A total of 548 children between the ages of 6 and 14 and 717 adults took part. In families with one infected person, children (34 percent) contracted the disease significantly less often than adults (58 percent) and – in the event of an infection – were five times more likely to be without symptoms (adults: 9 percent, children: 45 percent).

Nevertheless, the children showed higher and longer-lasting specific antibody levels than adults eleven to twelve months after infection. This was true regardless of whether there were signs of illness or not.

The children’s antibodies are very effective against different virus variants, so that children who are not visibly ill should also be protected after an infection. None of the infected children needed hospital treatment.

Signs of illness differ

Adults and children also differed in the reported complaints. While fever, cough, diarrhea and taste disorders were equally good indicators of infection in adults, only taste disorders were a clear indicator of COVID-19 infection in children (in 87 percent). A cough and fever were only indicative of an infection with increasing age from around the age of twelve.

In summary, it can be seen that children who have recovered from COVID-19 develop a very effective and sustained immune defense against new coronavirus infections despite an often very mild or even symptom-free course. There are indications that children’s immune defenses even outperform adults.

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source http://ostatus.org/2021/07/29/children-develop-long-term-immunity-to-covid-19/