Paediatrician: Children with covid19 not super spreaders

Dr Joanne Paul
Dr Joanne Paul

Dr Joanne Paul, head of the Paediatric Emergency Department, Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, says children with covid19 are not “super spreaders,” and may rarely show respiratory symptoms.

She was speaking at the Health Ministry’s virtual press conference on Saturday morning.

She said the public should think about covid19 as more than just a respiratory virus.

“In adults, there are more receptors in the respiratory system, and that’s why it seems to present like that. But of course, there are other receptor areas – brain, liver, heart…So that’s why you may present with other symptoms aside from respiratory (ones).

“In children, though, the difference is that their receptors are spread all over, so they might not have respiratory symptoms.”

She said while children typically spread viruses more than adults, in the case of covid19, they are spreading less, since they have fewer receptors.

But she warned that this does not mean it cannot happen.

She said from studies from Australia and Holland, the “super spreaders” appear to be adolescents and young adults between 12 and 28.

“In fact, the key age for super-spreading is age 21, and it’s not because of receptors or any genetic circumstances. It’s because those are the ones in bars, who are in large groups, having limes in different places…”

She also highlighted MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children), which is an immune response to the virus.

“So obviously, it goes along with where the receptors are, and the receptors are all in various systems. So it affects all the systems. So, they have had covid19 and now they have a response for it.

“It’s not that common, but there might be headache, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain; they typically have a rash where your hands and soles are red. On the fingertips and toe-tips, it looks like a clotting rash. Also, red eyes, red tongue, red lips.”

She said the child should immediately be taken to hospital if this occurs, adding that it often occurs within six to eight weeks after the peak of the virus.

She said it was a “strange phenomenon” doctors are trying to understand.

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