Children may have a weaker immune response to COVID-19, says Israeli study

According to recent research at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Israel, children may have a weaker immune response to COVID. The study says that the equalising antibodies begin to disappear in children who get the virus after only four months. Prof. Yechiel Schlesinger led the research in conjunction with the Health Ministry, who performed the first-ever analysis into the incidence of coronavirus antibodies in children taken care of in the hospital's paediatric ward.    

The experiment started between October 18, 2020, and January 12, 2021, when 1,138 children under 18 with an average age of 4.4 were polled for the study published in Acta Paediatrica. Throughout that period, nearly one-third that makes 29% of the children with coronavirus positive findings were found to be deficient in neutralising antibodies. 

According to Schlesinger, when patients were examined three weeks after the beginning of the condition, one-third of them had no antibodies. However, the antibodies of the remaining two-thirds of those who had contracted the illness more than four months ago had begun to decline. 

More details about the research 

It is observed that children achieved their maximal antibody concentration after three months when they were being diagnosed. According to the research, antibodies were seen as considerably reduced, much more so than in adulthood. It might indicate a weakened long-term immunological response in children. 

According to Schlesinger, the absence of antibodies does not imply that these infants are not safeguarded. However, the disappearance of antibody levels raises the question of whether those children are actually safe, as there are several proven theories to many research that if antibody levels drop, the risk of infection increases.  

He further added that the research might also have consequences for comprehending herd immunity, the potential of an infectious wave reappearance, and the development of paediatric vaccinations. It is surprising that just 10% of children were discovered to be affected by the disease, while 41% of those youngsters were unaware that they were afflicted. 

According to Schlesinger, the percentage of youngsters in Jerusalem infected with the virus has grown from 10% to 30% due to additional research done in June and July 2021, which are still to be released and are being written up. 

In this research, they finally discovered that there is no link between school reopening and child infection rates since pupils who chose to start classes for different reasons during the closed periods did not acquire extra antibodies compared to those who continued to stay at home. 

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