A new variant of the coronavirus has emerged.
A very sick newborn, treated at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, found not only to have a new variant of the new coronavirus, but a viral load 51,418 times greater than other young patients, according to Washington Post.
The new variant was recently identified when researchers sequenced the baby virus genome, which was treated in September and recovered, the Post reported, Ariana Eunjung Cha.
It is not clear how common or risky this new variant can be. The database found eight other cases of this variant in the US Meso-Atlantic region, according to a pre-printed study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, on variations of the coronavirus in children.
The variant, the researchers said, has a different type of peak protein structure that can make it more infectious.
It is not clear whether this new variant explains the large number of viral particles detected in the baby’s nose.
“It could be a complete coincidence,” Roberta DeBiasi, head of infectious diseases at the National Children’s Hospital, told the Post.
“But the association is very strong. If you see a patient who has more viruses exponentially and is a completely different variant, it’s probably related.”
Many questions remain about how the coronavirus affects children
Children are less likely to have severe cases of COVID-19, according to national data. Very young children may be less likely to infect other people when they become ill, although the CDC still suggests that everyone can potentially spread the disease.
But the researchers still don’t fully understand all the implications of coronavirus for children and babies.
In the past five months, the number of pediatric coronavirus cases has “dramatically” increased, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
Serious cases of COVID-19 in children are rare, but they do exist and have been associated with serious and long-term side effects, including brain damage.
And we know that some children are more vulnerable than others – the mortality rate for black children is much higher than that of their white peers.
As of February 11, 241 children had died of COVID-19 and the vast majority were black, Hispanic or Native American or Alaskan.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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