A new variant of the coronavirus has emerged.
A very sick newborn, treated at the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, was found to have not only a new variant of the novel coronavirus, but also a viral load 51,418 times higher than that of other young patients, the report said. Washington Post
The new variant was recently identified when researchers sequenced the genome of the baby’s virus, which was treated and recovered in September, Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Post reported.
It is not clear how often or how risky this new variant can be. The database found eight other cases of this variant in the mid-Atlantic region of the US, according to a pre-print study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, of variations in the coronavirus in children.
The variant, researchers said, has a different type of spike protein structure that can make it more contagious.
It is not clear whether this new variant explains the enormous number of virus particles in the nose of the child.
“It could be a complete coincidence,” Roberta DeBiasi, chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s National Hospital, told the Post.
“But the association is quite strong. If you see a patient who has exponentially more virus and it is a completely different variant, then that is probably related.”
Many questions remain about how the coronavirus affects children
According to national data, children are less likely to have serious cases of COVID-19. Very young children are less likely to infect other people when they get sick, although the CDC still suggests anyone could potentially spread the disease.
But researchers still don’t understand all the implications of coronavirus for children and babies.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, the number of coronavirus cases in children has risen “dramatically” in the past five months.
Serious cases of COVID-19 in children are rare but do exist and have been associated with serious and long-lasting side effects, including brain damage.
And we know that some children are more vulnerable than others – the death rate of children of color is much higher than that of their white peers.
On Feb. 11, 241 children died of COVID-19, and the vast majority were Black, Hispanic or Native American or Native Alaska.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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