Hakan ONUR, Arzu RAHMANALI ONUR

Evaluation of Immune Response in Asymptomatic Children with Parents withCOVID-19

Objective: From a public health perspective, understanding the pathogenesis and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in children is important both in understanding the role of the pediatric population in the transmission and spread dynamics of the epidemic, and in controlling the severity of the pandemic. The present study investigated the role of children in the spread of COVID-19 infection. Methods: Children, who applied to the Pediatrics Outpatient Clinic for routine check-ups between May and June 2021, with no symptoms and were not tested with RT-PCR for COVID-19 although their parents and close relatives were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the last 6 months, were evaluated prospectively. Results: Thirty-five cases, 20 of whom were male, were included in the study. While 17 of the children had contact with only 1 case, 18 of them had contact with 2 or more cases. While the mean antibody values for IgG of the subjects with one contact were 1.55±1.93 S/C and IgG-spike was 910.6±1512.02 AU/mL, the mean antibody values for IgG of the subjects with 2 or more contacts were 2.21±2.07 S/C and 1289.15±1750.49 AU/mL for IgG-spike. Twelve of the cases came into contact with patients in autumn, 21 in winter, and 2 in spring. Conclusion: As the virus spreads in the community, the dynamics and clinical features of the disease will change. There should be data with more cases in a wider geographical distribution. However, studies show that children are not the primary source of households to date. It was observed that the severity of the disease and more than one contact did not affect the severity of the disease in terms of antibody level.

Keywords:

covid-19, child, spike IgG antibody, immune response,

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