警惕！最新研究发现新冠病毒对儿童很不友好，复课需谨慎
在判断儿童是否容易感染、传播新冠肺炎时，如果只看表象可能会得到错误的结论。
芝加哥儿科医院和西北大学的研究人员发现，与年龄较大的儿童、青少年和成人相比，5岁以下轻、中度新冠肺炎患儿体内的新冠病毒浓度更高。
而就在这项发现公布之际，世界各地的父母、教育工作者和政策制定者还在就“重新开放日托中心和学校是否安全”这一问题争论不休。
7月30日发表于美国医学会儿科杂志《JAMA Pediatrics》上的这项研究并未对儿童传播病毒的几率进行测试，然而研究人员发现，尽管大多数儿童的症状相对较轻，但他们感染和传播新冠病毒的几率和成年人几乎一样，甚或更高。
该报告的第一作者、芝加哥卢里儿童医院小儿传染病专家、西北大学芬伯格医学院儿科学助理教授泰勒·希尔德·萨金特说：“我们在谈论学校复课问题时经常会谈到这样一个话题，即，儿童的症状比较轻微，是不是意味着儿童携带的病毒量就比较少？”
她告诉《财富》杂志：“我们的数据并不支持这一观点。因此，我们不能认为儿童不会传播新冠病毒。”
该研究使用的临床数据来自芝加哥145名处于治疗期间的轻、中症新冠患者，这些患者都是在研究开始前1个礼拜开始出现相关症状的。他们被大致分为三组：5岁以下儿童，5岁至18岁的儿童及青少年，以及18岁至65岁的成年人，研究排除了重症患者、无症状感染者以及症状出现超过一周或无法追踪症状的患者。
研究发现，受试患者的鼻拭子检测结果显示，5岁以下儿童的病毒携带量“在数据上显著多于”年龄较大的儿童和成人。
希尔德·萨金特称，她与合作作者是在临床观察中首次发现了这一现象，当时她们注意到，有些患儿的症状并不特别严重，但鼻拭子的病毒含量却异常高。
“这一结果让我们颇为意外。”她补充说。
她认为，对于大多数儿童的感染途径、免疫系统反应、病毒传播机理还需做进一步研究。此外，虽然幼儿一般更容易受到呼吸道感染的影响，但其在感染新冠肺炎时的症状却往往没有成人严重。
研究称，由于学校和日托服务在封城初期即已关闭，所以儿童相较成人接触病毒的机会要小一些。也有其他团队对这一问题进行了研究，但结论各不相同。
希尔德·萨金特表示，即使有了新数据，学校复课、日托重启“也是一项复杂的任务，需要谨慎推进”。但也有儿科医生警告称，学校长期放假和封城对儿童心理健康、教育和发展的影响可能要比疫情本身造成的影响大得多，这也让是否应该全面复课的争议更趋复杂化。（财富中文网）
译者：梁宇
审校：夏林
在判断儿童是否容易感染、传播新冠肺炎时，如果只看表象可能会得到错误的结论。
芝加哥儿科医院和西北大学的研究人员发现，与年龄较大的儿童、青少年和成人相比，5岁以下轻、中度新冠肺炎患儿体内的新冠病毒浓度更高。
而就在这项发现公布之际，世界各地的父母、教育工作者和政策制定者还在就“重新开放日托中心和学校是否安全”这一问题争论不休。
7月30日发表于美国医学会儿科杂志《JAMA Pediatrics》上的这项研究并未对儿童传播病毒的几率进行测试，然而研究人员发现，尽管大多数儿童的症状相对较轻，但他们感染和传播新冠病毒的几率和成年人几乎一样，甚或更高。
该报告的第一作者、芝加哥卢里儿童医院小儿传染病专家、西北大学芬伯格医学院儿科学助理教授泰勒·希尔德·萨金特说：“我们在谈论学校复课问题时经常会谈到这样一个话题，即，儿童的症状比较轻微，是不是意味着儿童携带的病毒量就比较少？”
她告诉《财富》杂志：“我们的数据并不支持这一观点。因此，我们不能认为儿童不会传播新冠病毒。”
该研究使用的临床数据来自芝加哥145名处于治疗期间的轻、中症新冠患者，这些患者都是在研究开始前1个礼拜开始出现相关症状的。他们被大致分为三组：5岁以下儿童，5岁至18岁的儿童及青少年，以及18岁至65岁的成年人，研究排除了重症患者、无症状感染者以及症状出现超过一周或无法追踪症状的患者。
研究发现，受试患者的鼻拭子检测结果显示，5岁以下儿童的病毒携带量“在数据上显著多于”年龄较大的儿童和成人。
希尔德·萨金特称，她与合作作者是在临床观察中首次发现了这一现象，当时她们注意到，有些患儿的症状并不特别严重，但鼻拭子的病毒含量却异常高。
“这一结果让我们颇为意外。”她补充说。
她认为，对于大多数儿童的感染途径、免疫系统反应、病毒传播机理还需做进一步研究。此外，虽然幼儿一般更容易受到呼吸道感染的影响，但其在感染新冠肺炎时的症状却往往没有成人严重。
研究称，由于学校和日托服务在封城初期即已关闭，所以儿童相较成人接触病毒的机会要小一些。也有其他团队对这一问题进行了研究，但结论各不相同。
希尔德·萨金特表示，即使有了新数据，学校复课、日托重启“也是一项复杂的任务，需要谨慎推进”。但也有儿科医生警告称，学校长期放假和封城对儿童心理健康、教育和发展的影响可能要比疫情本身造成的影响大得多，这也让是否应该全面复课的争议更趋复杂化。（财富中文网）
译者：梁宇
审校：夏林
When it comes to the coronavirus and children, looks may be deceiving.
In a study of children under five who show mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19, those kids were found to contain higher concentrations of the virus compared to older children, teens and adults, according to researchers at a Chicago pediatric hospital and Northwestern University.
The findings come as parents, educators and policymakers around the world grapple with the question of whether it's safe to reopen day-care centers and schools in the coming weeks.
The study, which was released Thursday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, did not test the transmission rate of children—but does raise the prospect that children could be just as, or even more, prone to COVID infection and transmission than adults, although symptoms in the vast majority of children are comparably milder, the researchers found.
"One of the things that’s come up in the whole school reopening discussion, is: since kids are less sick, is it because they have less of the virus?," said Taylor Heald-Sargent, the lead author and a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
"And our data does not support that,” she told Fortune.As a result, "we can't assume that kids aren't able to spread the virus."
The study used clinical data collected during the treatment of 145 COVID-19 patients in Chicago with mild to moderate symptoms, who had begun to display those symptoms over the previous week.The sample was roughly divided into three equal groups: children under five, children between five and 18, and adults from 18 to 65.The sample excluded patients who were seriously ill, asymptomatic patients, and patients whose symptoms had been present for more than a week, or whose symptoms couldn't be tracked.
Nasal swabs taken from those patients indicated that the viral load in children under five was "statistically significant" compared to older children and adults, the paper found.
The trend was first noticed during clinical observations, Heald-Sargent said, when she and her co-authors first noticed that nasal samples from kids who were not particularly ill contained unusually high levels of the virus.
"We were surprised," she added.
There's still much to be learned about how most children become infected with the virus, how their immune systems respond to COVID-19, and how they transmit it, she added.What's better understood is that the symptoms shown in young children tend to be less severe than those of adults—that's despite the fact that young children are broadly more vulnerable to respiratory infections at a younger age.
The study also warns that because schools and day-care closed early in the lockdown, children broadly were less exposed to the virus than adults.Other studies have also tackled this observation—with mixed results.
Even with the new data, Heald-Sargent herself warns that reopening schools and day-cares is a "complex and nuanced" subject.Other pediatricians have warned that the impacts on children's mental health, education, and development could be damaged far more by long breaks from school and time spent in lockdown than by the virus itself, complicating the arguments for and against a great reopening.
