Children may have weaker long-term immunity against COVID-19, says Israeli study

An Israeli medical institute, which is soon to publish a study claiming almost one-third of Jerusalem youngsters were likely infected with COVID-19, has also revealed another vital finding.

In another study from Israel’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, the neutralizing antibodies that develop after contracting COVID, start declining in children after only four months.

This means that children who built COVID-19 immunity after overcoming the infection may have a weakened immune response after only a little more than 100 days from the infection.

More importantly, the findings may be an indication of children having a weaker long-term immunity against COVID-19.

The study was performed by a team of doctors at hospital's paediatric department. As per Jerusalem Post, the doctors believe their data can be used to make informed policy decisions.

Published in the journal Acta Paediatrica, the study was conducted on 1,138 youngsters less than 18 years of age and having tested COVID-19 positive. 41% of the participating children in the study knew about their exposure to the SARS-COV-2 virus.

The study documented that almost one-third or 29% of the children did not show the neutralizing antibodies. This could indicate that these children did not develop antibodies.

The rest of the participants whose infections had occurred at least 4 or more months prior to the study, showed loss of antibodies.

Dr. Yechiel Schlesinger, an author of the study, stated that the lower long-term immunological response in children compared to adults is due to reduced antibody levels.

Some separate studies in the domain have found a connection between higher COVID-19 risk and lower antibody levels.

The study was based on a cross-section of the population of Jerusalem. However, the authors do not establish if similar findings can be expected in other regions of Israel.