Infants Younger Than 6 Months Infected With SARS-CoV-2 Show the Highest Respiratory Viral Loads.

Ochoa, Valeria; Díaz, Fernando Erra; Ramirez, Ezequiel; Fentini, María Clara; Carobene, Mauricio; Geffner, Jorge; Arruvito, Lourdes; Remes Lenicov, Federico et al. · J Infect Dis · 2022

retrospective_cohort · Level III

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Abstract

There is a paucity of reports on the characteristics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in infants, because most studies have grouped infants with older children. We analyzed the viral loads of 45318 SARS-CoV-2-positive nasopharyngeal swab samples obtained in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Infants younger than 6 months presented higher viral loads than any other age group. Children older than 6 months showed significantly lower viral loads, similar to those founds in adults. This observation raises new questions regarding the role of infants in the spreading of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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