A new study is showing that any COVID-19 infection in youth is triggering a strong antibody response in the immune system. When COVID-19 first arrived, it was a novel virus, which meant that it was new. This meant that medical experts and scientists were learning about the virus and its effects as time went on. Even though we are 16 months into the pandemic, the world still learning how it works and how it impacts children especially. Children were thought to be “immune” from the virus, but now the world knows that children can get the virus, and can face serious risks from it.
However, for children who have had the virus, and recovered, what does this mean for their immune system. According to Medical Xpress and US News, a new study is showing that any COVID-19 infection in children is triggering a strong immune response, and children are left with a strong level of antibodies.
This is even true for children who test positive but remain asymptomatic throughout the virus’ life. The study was completed by Duke University School of Medicine and Jillian Hurst was a co-lead author and she said that this was very promising.
She stated that this is important because children cannot receive the vaccine if they are under 12 years old right now and that the study showed that even children who had mild cases of the virus developed an immune response that can protect them from future infections. While this is not an ideal way to get antibodies against the virus, as there is the risk that a child could get seriously ill with the virus, it is giving some protection to children who have already recovered from the virus.
To complete the study, the researchers looked at the antibody response in 69 young patients between the ages of 2 months and 21 years. They looked at cases that were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. The average age was 11 years old and they found that the antibody response in children did not differ depending on their level and presence of symptoms. They also found that these antibodies were still in the child’s system up to 4 months post-infection. They also found that antibodies in children were either the same of even higher than adults who had been infected from 2 to 4 months post recovery. The researchers stated that this study also shows that giving the vaccine to children will give them either the same protection adults receive, or even greater.
Sources: Medical Xpress, US News