SARS-CoV2 Antibodies in Pediatric Patients (COVID-19)

Since the beginning of the year, the entire world has been concerned with the novel SARS-CoV2 virus. After the first case descriptions in Wuhan, there has been a rapid increase in the number of cases in Germany as well. In case of an illness with the virus, the affected patients can suffer from a slight infection of the upper respiratory tract up to severe lung failure and death. Interestingly, up to now, children are usually less severely affected than adults. However, the actual infection rates are probably similar to those of adults, even if the actual prevalence in children is difficult to quantify so far. The extent of the disease in children has also been less researched to date than in adults, and the same applies to pregnant women and their newborns. In addition, intensive research into possible therapeutic strategies and new vaccines is necessary. Here, however, the number of clinical studies in children is also far behind. In order to be able to understand the infection process and to protect the population with their children, comprehensive testing is necessary. However, this poses great challenges for local health authorities. Scientific investigations are also costly, but are already being carried out by many institutes. So far, for example in the SeBlueCo study, a very low prevalence of antibodies (1.3% of people) has been show. In children, however, both the routes of infection and the way the immune system deals with the virus are probably different than in adults. In this study the investigators now want to examine residual blood samples from pediatric patients of the pediatric and adolescent clinic in the time course after the beginning of the pandemic in order to better understand and monitor the development of antibody prevalence.