Why Is Coronavirus Affecting More Adults Than Children?

6The case that made headlines

There was one reported case that made headlines and brought the fact that children are not being affected to the mainstream media. A family with a 10-year-old child was vacationing in Wuhan when the outbreak started and immediately returned upon hearing the news. They thought they were in the clear but after a few days, things changed.

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7What happened?

A few days after returning from their Wuhan trip all the members of the family who were between the ages of 30 to 60 began experiencing the symptoms. These included diarrhea, fever, sore throat, etc. The child only showed symptoms of pneumonia but that was about it and after a bit of treatment for that particular symptom he was much better.

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8A possible explanation

According to Dr. RainaMaclntyre who is an epidemiologist in New South Wales this happens because as we grow older our bodies start to decline exponentially. The reason why most patients are in their 50s is because the body at that age is much weaker. The immune system is experienced in fighting threats it knows but isn’t ready for something new.

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9A logical way of thinking

To think about this logically, a young child’s body has a developing immune system and if the child is healthy the immune system can fend off any attack quickly. But as we grow older and our immune system keeps working it loses its effectiveness to fight newer threats and unlike the child’s immune system it can push itself anymore.

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10Other doctors commented on this

According to Dr. Andrew Pavia who is the chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah, this is something that hasn’t been documented properly as it was recently discovered. They do not fully understand why this is happening and their experience can provide limited answers.

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