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. 2022 Feb 1;225(3):392-395.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiab577.

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

Valeria Ochoa  1 , Fernando Erra Díaz  1 , Ezequiel Ramirez  1 , María Clara Fentini  1 , Mauricio Carobene  1 , Jorge Geffner  1 , Lourdes Arruvito  1 , Federico Remes Lenicov  1 ; INBIRS COVID-19 Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

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

Valeria Ochoa et al. J Infect Dis. .

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.

Keywords: 19; 2; COVID; CoV; SARS; children; viral load.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
ORF1a cycle threshold (Ct) values across age groups. A, The total 45318 positive samples segmented by 10-year age intervals; ∗∗∗ 0–9 years versus other groups, P < .001. B, Density plot showing Ct value distribution; colors correspond to groups in (A). C, Ct values from infant and children subgroups; ∗∗∗ 0–6 months versus any other age group, P < .001. In the violin plots, boxes depict the IQR, the horizontal line the median and the whiskers the 95% CI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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