As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause havoc world-wide, studies are beginning to shed light on its impact on infants. And so far the findings have been promising for parents and researchers alike.
A report published in The Journal of Pediatrics suggests that babies who test positive for COVID-19 often only have a mild case of the virus with little or no respiratory problems.
A recent review published in the Italian Journal of Pediatrics that looked at infants up to the age of six months found that those who were infected would typically exhibit only a slight cough, runny nose or fever, which disappeared in a week or so.
Why babies do not develop serious symptoms?
One of the favored hypotheses focuses on how easily the new coronavirus can gain access to the body’s tissues. Infection occurs when particles of the virus, SARS-CoV-2, enter human cells through a receptor called ACE2 and hijack those cells’ machinery to make copies of themselves. These copies then invade new cells. The thinking is that infant cells have only a few ACE2 receptors, whereas those of an elderly person might harbor thousands. With fewer available points of entry in a baby, it could be harder for the virus to break in. Alternatively—and perhaps counterintuitively—an infant’s immune system might simply be too immature to attack SARS-CoV-2. Given that most of the damage in severe Covid-19 cases seems to be caused by strong immune responses, that immaturity may work in babies’ favor.
“It’s a dance that takes place between the virus and our own immune system,” says Rana Chakraborty, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic. If the body’s defenses react too little, the virus will be able to take over. An overreaction can be equally deadly, however. So children older than about one year of age might be in a sweet spot between infants, whose immune system has not yet fully kicked in, and adults, whose defenses are sometimes overzealous.
a study involving 18 infants younger than 90 days who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and found that although half of the babies were hospitalized, none required intensive care. “I think that is reassuring, that young infants actually may not be at a specifically higher risk of severe and critical illness, as we initially were worried about,” Leena B. Mithal, a pediatric infectious disease specialist
“Parents should be aware that it’s important to protect children—not [just] from the infection itself—because it’s mild—but also from this postinflammatory syndrome,” says Asif Noor, a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at New York University, who specializes in infectious diseases among children. With that warning in mind, he advises that parents should limit visitors during a baby’s first few months and ask that everyone—even those who are asymptomatic—stand at least six feet away from the newborn.
– Various sources