Key result
Children experience milder COVID-19 and lower mortality than adults, potentially linked to ACE2 and T-cell differences.
Why the study?
Targeted therapies for COVID-19 are lacking, and elder patients are more susceptible to severe disease whereas children tend to have milder symptoms.
This review provides an overview of COVID-19 pathophysiology and proposes hypotheses for the milder disease course observed in pediatric populations compared to adults.
Clinical management of pediatric COVID-19 remains unchanged; leaves open prospective validation of ACE2 and immune hypotheses.
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus, now named as SARS-CoV-2, caused a series of acute atypical respiratory diseases in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The disease caused by this virus was termed COVID-19. The virus is transmittable between humans and has caused pandemic worldwide. The number of death tolls continues to rise and a large number of countries have been forced to do social distancing and lockdown. Lack of targeted therapy continues to be a problem. Epidemiological studies showed that elder patients were more susceptible to severe diseases, while children tend to have milder symptoms. Here we reviewed the current knowledge about this disease and considered the potential explanation of the different symptomatology between children and adults.
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Zhou et al. (2024) conducted a review in COVID-19. Children generally experience milder COVID-19 symptoms and lower mortality rates compared to adults, potentially due to differences in ACE2 expression, T cell responses, and coexisting viral infections.
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