Children who get a seasonal flu shot are less likely to have symptoms of a COVID-19 infection, the promising study finds
- U.S. researchers look at a group of more than 900 children in Arkansas
- Half were vaccinated with the seasonal flu rod and half did not get it
- Data show that children who have had a flu shot are 29 percent less likely to develop symptoms of Covid-19
Children who get the flu every year are less likely to develop symptoms of Covid-19, according to a study.
Researchers looked at medical records of 905 children who tested positive for Covid-19 when they were admitted to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital System between Feb. 1 and Aug. 30, 2020. About half received the seasonal flu shot.
However, the data show that children who got the flu were 29 percent less likely to develop symptoms of Covid-19 after infection with the coronavirus.
The scientists found that those vaccinated against the flu had a 32 percent reduced risk of developing respiratory symptoms and a 33 percent decrease in the chance of developing serious illnesses.
Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who led the study, believe the flu shot could offer immunological protection against Covid due to a biological phenomenon known as ‘viral interference’.
Data show that children who have had a flu shot are 29 percent less likely to develop symptoms of Covid-19 if they are infected with the coronavirus (stock).
“It is known that the growth of one virus can be inhibited by a previous viral infection,” explains Dr Anjali Patwardhan, co-author of the study.
‘[Virus interference] can occur even if the first virus invader is an inactivated virus, as is the case with the flu vaccine. ‘
Nearly two-thirds of the patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 had no symptoms, but of those who did the majority (88 percent), only mild cases.
The study showed that those vaccinated against influenza had a 32 percent reduced risk of developing respiratory symptoms.
Children are repeatedly affected by coronavirus infection throughout the entire pandemic, unlike adults.
They are responsible for a minute percentage of symptomatic cases, and even less for hospitalizations and deaths.
For example, only 32 of the 74,786 deaths associated with Covid in hospitals recorded by NHS England on 4 February 2021 were people under 19, about 4.2 percent.
Separate data from the Office for National Statistics data report that on January 22, there were 103,394 deaths involving Covid-19, and that only 11 of these were in people under 14 – 1.35 percent.
However, the role of children as carriers of the virus remains relatively unknown, and experts are debating whether they can house and spread the virus while remaining asymptomatic.
“Research on the pediatric population is critical because children play an important role in influencing viral transmission,” he said. Patwardhan said.
“Understanding the relationship and coexistence of other viruses along with COVID-19 and knowing the vaccination status of the pediatric patient can help us to use the right strategies to achieve the best results.”
The research was published in Cereus.