In a new study, researchers found children can have COVID-19 antibodies and virus in their bodies at the same time.
This means children still have the potential to transmit the virus even if antibodies are detected.
The findings improve the understanding of how long it takes pediatric patients with the virus to clear it from their systems, and at what point they start to make antibodies that work against the coronavirus.
The research was conducted by a team at Children’s National Hospital.
With most viruses, when people start to show antibodies, they won’t show the virus anymore. But with COVID-19, doctors are seeing both.
This study used an analysis of 6,369 children tested for COVID-19, and 215 patients who underwent antibody testing at Children’s National between March 13, 2020, and June 21, 2020.
Out of the 215 patients, 33 had co-testing for both the virus and antibodies during their disease course. Nine of the 33 showed the presence of antibodies in their blood while also later testing positive for the virus.
The researchers found patients 6 through 15 years old took a longer time to clear the virus (median of 32 days) compared to patients 16 through 22 years old (median of 18 days).
Females in the 6-15 age group also took longer to clear the virus than males (median of 44 days for females compared to a median of 25.5 days for males).
The study also assessed the timing of viral clearance and immunologic response.
It found the median time from viral positivity to negativity when the virus can no longer be detected, was 25 days.
The median time to seropositivity, or the presence of antibodies in the blood, was 18 days, while the median time to reach adequate levels of neutralizing antibodies was 36 days.
Neutralizing antibodies are important in potentially protecting a person from the re-infection of the same virus.
The team says that the next phase of research will be to test if the virus that is present alongside the antibodies can be transmitted to other people.
It also remains unknown if antibodies correlate with immunity, and how long antibodies and potential protection from reinfection last.
One author of the study is Burak Bahar, M.D., the director of Laboratory Informatics at Children’s National.
The study is published in the Journal of Pediatrics.
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