WHO warns some children develop 'severe disease' from coronavirus
The World Health Organization said parents need to prepare their kids to guard against COVID-19 after a new study showed that babies and very young children can sometimes develop severe symptoms.
A recent study showed that a number of children in China have developed severe and critical disease, including one death, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday. "What we need to prepare for is the possibility that children can also experience severe disease."
The new study, which was published online in the journal Pediatrics, looked at 2,143 cases of children with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 that were reported to the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between Jan. 16 and Feb. 8. More than 90% of the cases were asymptomatic, mild, or moderate cases. However, nearly 6% of the children's cases were severe or critical, compared with 18.5% for adults.
"There could be a number of reasons," Bonnie Maldonado, an infectious disease expert at Stanford who was not involved with the study, said in a statement. "It's possible that the receptor for the virus may not be in the same configuration in children as adults. It's possible that there were just more adults who were tested because that has been the focus."
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