The possible third wave of Covid-19 is unlikely to affect children much, according to a multi centric community based serosurvey study conducted by AIIMS, Delhi, thus contradicting apprehensions that a future Covid-19 wave may disproportionately hit kids.
The survey revealed that infection rates among kids and adults in five cities in different parts of the country, in both rural and urban areas, were similar. The data also showed that irrespective of the age groups, rural sites had lower sero-positivity compared to the urban sites.
Citing the findings, the researchers associated with AIIMS in Bhubaneshwar and Gorakhpur, apart from Delhi, JIPMER, Puducherry, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad and Agartala government medical college and WHO have ruled out the possibility that Covid-19 surges ahead are likely to hit children harder than before.
Blood samples were collected from 4,509 individuals, 700 aged 2-17 years and 3,809 aged 18 and above between March 15-June 10 to check for the antibodies against SARS coV 2 for the study.
Of the participants tested from Delhi, Faridabad, Bhubaneshwar, Agartala and Gorakhpur, 55.7 per cent kids and adolescents had antibodies against the COVID-19 virus, while in adults the seroprevalence was found to be 63.5 per cent.
“Hence, it is unlikely that any future third wave by a prevailing COVID-19 variant would disproportionately affect children two years or older,” the report has said.
Within the rural sites, children had slightly lower sero-positivity compared to adults. However, this differential prevalence was not observed in the urban sites.
It was also seen that the prevalence in children was slightly more among female participants compared to male (58.6 per cent versus 53.0 per cent) but there was no statistically significant difference in sero-positivity between male and female.
The researchers found that children aged 2-4 years and 5-9 years had almost identical sero-positivity rate (42.4 per cent and 43.8 per cent) which was lower than the rate observed for children aged 10-17 years (60.3 per cent)
The higher seropositivity rate in children aged 10-17 years may be reflective of their higher mobility and independence compared to the younger children, the study noted adding that as reported in the literature, a large proportion of children (50.9%) had an asymptomatic COVID-19 infection.