Your complete guide to understanding Corona's impact on children and infants ... and how to protect yourself?

Recent studies conducted recently in people with "Covid-19" disease, caused by the emerging coronavirus, indicate that it affects adults more than infants and children.

One of these studies, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, on more than 72,000 people living with HIV in China, found that only 2 percent of them were younger than 19 years old.

Another study by the World Health Organization mission in China showed that only 2.4 percent of those infected were 18 years of age or younger. Of them, only 2.5 percent had severe symptoms and 0.2 percent had severe symptoms.

However, these findings should be wary of caution. Children, although they may be less sick, are able to pass it on to others.

Even if they do not show severe symptoms, children can transmit the virus to adults, especially those with weak immunity.

But are children really less likely to get sick?

The aforementioned WHO report indicates that few children are examined if they have the disease, so there is not enough information on the number of children affected.

"We know that children tend to have mild symptoms, but we saw at least one child die from this infection," said Maria Van Kerkhof, a WHO expert.

Determining the cause remains elusive, as it is known that children are more vulnerable to the risks of viruses in general, because they do not wash their hands well and are not keen on social divergence, so that not a large proportion of them are infected with the new disease is still a confusing matter, according to Priya Coates, Assistant Professor of Medicine Children at Northwestern University.

It is worth noting that 144 children died in the US flu virus this season.

According to a new study published in the journal "Pediatrics", more than 2000 sick children under the age of 18 across China revealed that children are at high risk of contracting the virus with serious associated symptoms.

But about half of the children who have been infected with the virus have mild symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, cough, congestion and possibly nausea or diarrhea, as the study found more than a third, about 39 per cent, of the patients experienced additional symptoms including pneumonia or the lung problems it had detected Computed tomography, but with no apparent shortness of breath.

But it is interesting that about a third of children have been confirmed with the virus, while it has been assumed that the remaining two-thirds are infected with the virus, meaning that these symptoms may have been caused by other diseases.

Infants are more likely

It is also noteworthy that more than half of the cases considered "serious" were children less than a year old, that is, infants.

Perhaps the reason for this is that infants are in the stage of building their immune system, and it is known that when a child is born, it can resist infection through antibodies obtained from the mother, but this resistance diminishes during the first months of the child's life as he builds his own defenses against diseases .

What reduces the chance that infants will resist the disease is that their bodies are "not trained" to resist, as the mother's body has not previously dealt with such a virus, and there is no vaccine available yet that helps the child resist, according to Cotts.

The researchers say that infants are exposed to all types of environmental stimuli for the first time, such as bacteria, pollen and dust, and to prevent their bodies from over-responding to non-harmful things, their immune system's response to infection decreases.

This explains that children in the first year of life are more vulnerable to the serious symptoms that result from infection.

For older children who are immunodeficient or have other heart, metabolic, or respiratory problems, they are also at risk of complications from the new disease.

It may be that the less exposure of older children and healthy people to the disease is their immune system getting used to resisting other diseases of the SK family similar to the new virus, but it is less harmful.

Many of their common colds are caused by other coronaviruses, according to doctors.

Because children may be exposed to these viruses more frequently than adults in school and in playgroups, their immune systems are better able to detect and control the new virus.

Another hypothesis is that the children's immune system exhibits an excessive response in dealing with external attacks, according to Coates, compared to many older people who were hospitalized recently due to "Covid-19" and were suffering from severe infections and fever.

Their immune responses were more dangerous, as they resulted in more damage to their bodies than the virus itself.

Therefore it can be said that because of the low risk of an excessive immune response in children, they have mild symptoms.

How to protect yourself from catching infection from children?

• You should follow well-known tips such as washing hands and avoiding contact with surfaces.
• Care must also be taken to separate social groups and avoid gatherings, and indeed many governments have closed schools and major events
• Do not approach children if they are sick, because they pass on the infection
• Take care to sterilize the house constantly