Skip to main content
03/08/2021

Dr. Antoni Soriano, interviewed on MedPage Today for his study that demonstrated low transmissivity of COVID-19 in children

copedicat_prospectiu_884

03/08/2021

"Child-centered measures will have little impact on reducing COVID-19, and if they are too harsh they can affect the well-being of this population", says Dr. Soriano in the prestigious publication.

Dr. Antoni Soriano, member of the Pediatric Infectious Pathology and Immunodeficiencies Unit of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and researcher of the Infection in Immunosuppressed Pediatric Patients research group at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), has been interviewed in the prestigious publication https://www.medpagetoday.com/idsa/general-infectious-diseases/93719 MedPage Today, on the occasion of his study, which shows that pediatric patients are low transmitters of SARS-CoV-2."Our findings show that children, symptomatic or not, do not contribute much to COVID-19 outbreaks at home and are unlikely to be the drivers of the pandemic, even if they attend school", summarizes Dr. Soriano at the interview. "Therefore, child-centered health measures will have little impact in reducing COVID-19, but measures that are too harsh can profoundly affect the well-being of this population", he adds.As the analysis concluded, only 7.7% (80 cases) of pediatric patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis in Catalonia between July 1 and October 31, 2020 were the transmitters of the SARS-CoV-2 infection to the rest of the members of their family nucleus. This was shown by the http://www.vhir.org/portal1/news-detail.asp?t=vhir---cercar-notiacutecies&contentid=222065&s=actualitat results of the study 'Pediatric COVID in Catalonia: joining efforts to provide responses to COVID-19 (COPEDI-CAT)', published in the journal https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab228/6168547 Clinical Infectious Diseases. The study included 1,040 pediatric patients with a positive PCR and 3,392 diagnosed family contacts. In 52 additional cases, the primary case was another minor in the family (5%)."The free movement of children and their return to schools did not imply a greater transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by them", commented Dr. Soriano during the presentation of the results. The publication of this research gave the definitive support to the continuous opening of educational centers, which remained closed for months at the beginning of the pandemic, due to the declaration of the state of alarm.In May, Dr. Soriano http://www.vhir.org/portal1/news-detail.asp?t=el-dr-antoni-soriano-premiat-per-la-espid&contentid=225718&s=actualitat received the Research Presentation Award from the European Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) for this same study.

Subscribe to our newsletters and be part of the Campus life

We are a world-leading healthcare complex where healthcare, research, teaching and innovation go hand in hand.

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.