Why do some children become seriously ill with COVID? The answer may lie in their genes

By Negusse Tadesse Kitaba, Senior Research Fellow in Bioinformatics and Epigenetics, University of Southampton
Heather Zar, Professor & Chair, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town
John W Holloway, Associate Vice President (Interdisciplinary Research) and Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Genetics, University of Southampton

Most children who are infected with SARS-COV2, the virus that causes COVID, experience only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. But a small proportion develop severe illness which can sometimes even require hospital care.

The reason why only some children develop severe illness hasn’t been clear until now. But our latest study provides new insights into the immune responses associated with severe respiratory infections such…

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