Pediatric coronavirus cases see significant spike in the US, study finds
"While children generally don’t get as sick with the coronavirus as adults, they are not immune and there is much to learn about how easily they can transmit it to others."
By AARON REICHChildren are returning to school in Israel amid the coronavirus pandemic. August 24, 2020.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
New research has found that United States has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of children infected by coronavirus, ABC News reported Tuesday.For the study, researchers from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association studied trends in reported cases over five months from April to September. According to their findings, the number of pediatric cases rose from 2.2% to 10% of all national cases in this five-month period. As of September 10, the rate of pediatric of infections was 729 cases out of every 100,000 children.While it is unclear the extent to which increased testing efforts were responsible for this rise in pediatric cases, data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that tests administered to children under the age of 18 have remained a consistent 5%-7% of all tests administered since late April, ABC News reported.“These rising numbers concern us greatly, as the children’s cases reflect the increasing virus spread in our communities,” Dr. Sally Goza, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement obtained by ABC News.“While children generally don’t get as sick with the coronavirus as adults, they are not immune and there is much to learn about how easily they can transmit it to others. We must keep our children — and each other — healthy by following the recommended safety measures like washing hands, wearing cloth face coverings and staying 6 feet apart from others.”On April 23, less than 3% of all cases reported that week were children. But over the last eight weeks, this jumped to 12%-15.9% of all cases per week, the study explained, according to ABC News.“We will continue to closely monitor children’s cases, with hopes of seeing the upward trend turn around,” Goza said.“We encourage parents to call their pediatricians and get their children into the office for well visits and vaccinations, especially now that some schools are reopening and flu season has arrived.”The findings were published online, and will be printed in the December edition of the academic journal Pediatrics.
