Coronavirus-infected kids who show no ✃symptoms of being ill are endangering public health by sℱecretly spreading the disease, according to a troubling new study.
The research, which was in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, looked at 36 cases of kids under the age of 16 who tested p🌟ositive for COVID-19 at hospitals in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang.
Of the cases, there were 28% without any symptoms while anoth﷽er 19% only showed mild upper respiratory issues, researchers said.
“Although fever, dry cough, and mild pneumonia are common manifestations, nearly half of patients have neither obvious symptoms nor abnormal radiological findings,” researchers wrote in the paper.
Researchers said the findin⛦gs suggest that children could be spreading the virus despite not showing any symptoms🔥.
“The large proportion of asymptomatic children indicates the difficulty in identifying pediatric patients who do not have clear epidemiological information, leading to a dangerous situation in community-acquired infections,” researchers said.
Dr. Tom Frieden, who is ex-director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said earlier this month that child𒀰ren⛦ without any symptoms could make the pandemic more difficult to contain.
“The fact that chi𝓰ldren may get infected but not show symptoms poses ไa risk to pediatricians,” Frieden said.