More young people hospitalized as more contagious variants spread

Dr. Paul Offit, a physician at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, said he is now seeing more patients with a rare inflammatory condition, a complication of Covid-19, than he has ever experienced since the start of the pandemic.

In Texas, Dr. James McDeavitt, dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, said he and his colleagues are noticing an increase in the admissions of young people with Covid-19, although he did not yet have hard data to back up the anecdotal explanation. substantiate. proof.

Both doctors attributed the increase in the number of teens and young adults hospital visits, at least in part, to B.1.1.7, the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK and now the most common type circulating in the US, according to public health officials . variant is highly contagious and is believed to be about 60% more transmissible than the original strain of the virus.

“I think they are more likely to become infected with the contagiousness of the virus,” said Offit, a health expert in virology and immunology who has also served on advisory panels from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. “So for that reason I think you’ll see and see more diseases” in children and young adults.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said earlier this month that hospitals are seeing more and more younger adults hospitalized with Covid-19 as new, more contagious variants of the virus spread faster than ever before. Nationally, the number of 18- to 64-year-olds attending emergency departments is on the rise with Covid, while the number of visits among patients 65 and older is declining, according to a slide Walensky presented during a newsletter last week.

“Cases and emergency room visits are over,” Walensky said. “We are seeing these increases in younger adults, most of whom have not yet been vaccinated.”

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said last week that the state is seeing Covid’s positivity rate increase among people 18 to 24 years old. In Michigan, where Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are rapidly increasing, the number of cases is unprecedented. according to state data released April 6, for those 19 and under, according to state data released April 6. Hospital admissions are on the rise for all age groups, with the greatest increase in people between the ages of 40 and 49, according to the state’s data.

Health experts say the problem is multifaceted: Older teens and young adults were among the last to be preferred to receive the Covid-19 vaccines, and many of them have yet to get the injections. Additionally, young adults are believed to be involved in more risky behaviors, such as practicing close-contact sports, going out to bars, attending unmasked gatherings, or traveling.

Those factors combined with the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant likely cause young people to go to hospital, health experts say.

We are seeing “fewer diseases in the elderly as a result of vaccination, so proportionately we will now see more diseases in young adults,” said Dr. Stephen Schrantz, an infectious disease expert at UChicago Medicine, adding that it is still unclear how much of this increase is only due to the B.1.1.7 strain.

Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, said there is emerging evidence indicating that B.1.1.7 causes more symptoms and more serious illnesses. He said health officials in the US and in other countries where the tax is prevalent may see a shift towards unvaccinated young people ending up in hospitals or even the ICU.

“There are things that are currently not working in our favor, namely B.1.1.7 and other troubling variants,” he said.

While more young people could get sick, UChicago’s Schrantz said he doesn’t expect many of them to become seriously ill, especially school-age children. He said young adults with co-morbidities such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes are likely to be most at risk.

“The severity of the disease is mainly based on two factors: the virus and the host,” said Schrantz.

“While the virus is changing, I don’t believe the mutations in the spike protein will have increased virulence in children because their bodies, and more specifically their immune systems, are just less responsive to the virus. In other words, I think the host is the most important variable compared to virus changes, ”he said.

Offit said he expects things to improve as the US vaccinates more adults, regardless of age, adding that it will become more difficult for the virus to spread from one person to another as more people have antibodies.

According to data from the CDC, more than 125 million Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine since Thursday. That’s about 37% of the total US population.

Young people “live in the fold,” said Offit. “The more the herd is vaccinated, the less the virus can spread.”