Among the more than 2,000 youngsters treated for Covid-19 at Children s National Hospital in the District of Columbia, USA, one newborn was unusual. The baby was very sick, for one. Most infected kids barely show symptoms and even the hospitalised ones tend to have mild cases. But the real surprise came when doctors measured the infant s viral load. It was 51,418 times the median of other paediatric patients. And when they sequenced the virus in the baby recently, they found a variant they hadn t seen before.
Jae C. Hong/AP
In this January 8 photo, emergency medical technician Thomas Hoang, 29, of Emergency Ambulance Service, pushes a gurney into an emergency room to drop off a Covid-19 patient in Placentia, California. Coronavirus hospitalisations are falling across the United States, but deaths have remained stubbornly high.
File photo: And some experts argue that some of the best bang for our limited genetic testing buck could come from focusing more on children, who could act as harbingers of more infectious strains because they are generally more resistant to the virus. Picture: Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA)
Covid-19 medical mystery: Baby with high viral load baffles doctors
By The Washington Post
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington - Among the more than 2 000 youngsters treated for the coronavirus at Children s National Hospital in the District of Columbia, one newborn was unusual.
The baby was very sick, for one. Most infected kids barely show symptoms and even the hospitalized ones tend to have mild cases.
Coronavirus medical mystery: Baby with high viral load puzzles researchers ctpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ctpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Coronavirus medical mystery: Baby with high viral load puzzles researchers
Ariana Eunjung Cha, The Washington Post
Feb. 23, 2021
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Among the more than 2,000 youngsters treated for the coronavirus at Children s National Hospital in the District of Columbia, one newborn was unusual. The baby was very sick, for one. Most infected kids barely show symptoms and even the hospitalized ones tend to have mild cases.
But the real surprise came when doctors measured the infant s viral load. It was 51,418 times the median of other pediatric patients. And when they sequenced the virus in the baby recently, they found a variant they hadn t seen before.