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Comment & Response
February 1, 2021

Viral Loads of SARS-CoV-2 in Young Children

Author Affiliations
  • 1Hantaviruses and Rickettsioses Laboratory, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
JAMA Pediatr. 2021;175(5):528. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.5539

To the Editor Reliable data for profiles of viral load are needed and important to guide antiviral treatment, infection control, and vaccination. In their interesting article in JAMA Pediatrics, Heald-Sargent and colleagues1 describe that levels of viral nucleic acid in nasopharyngeal swabs are significantly greater in children younger than 5 years compared with older children. The authors report that children younger than 5 years (n = 46), children aged 5 to 17 years (n = 51), and adults aged 18 to 65 years (n = 48) had median cutoff cycle threshold (Ct) values of 11 for older children and adults and 6.5 for children younger than 5 years.

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