Serological identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections among children visiting a hospital during the initial Seattle outbreak

Adam S. Dingens, Katharine H. D. Crawford, Amanda Adler, Sarah L. Steele, Kirsten Lacombe, Rachel Eguia, Fatima Amanat, Alexandra C. Walls, Caitlin R. Wolf, Michael Murphy, Deleah Pettie, Lauren Carter, Xuan Qin, Neil P. King, David Veesler, Florian Krammer, Jane A. Dickerson, Helen Y. Chu, Janet A. Englund () and Jesse D. Bloom ()
Additional contact information
Adam S. Dingens: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Katharine H. D. Crawford: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Amanda Adler: Seattle Children’s Hospital
Sarah L. Steele: Seattle Children’s Hospital
Kirsten Lacombe: Seattle Children’s Hospital
Rachel Eguia: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Fatima Amanat: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Alexandra C. Walls: University of Washington
Caitlin R. Wolf: University of Washington
Michael Murphy: University of Washington
Deleah Pettie: University of Washington
Lauren Carter: University of Washington
Xuan Qin: Seattle Children’s Hospital
Neil P. King: University of Washington
David Veesler: University of Washington
Florian Krammer: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Jane A. Dickerson: Seattle Children’s Hospital
Helen Y. Chu: University of Washington
Janet A. Englund: Seattle Children’s Hospital
Jesse D. Bloom: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Children are strikingly underrepresented in COVID-19 case counts. In the United States, children represent 22% of the population but only 1.7% of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases as of April 2, 2020. One possibility is that symptom-based viral testing is less likely to identify infected children, since they often experience milder disease than adults. Here, to better assess the frequency of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection, we serologically screen 1,775 residual samples from Seattle Children’s Hospital collected from 1,076 children seeking medical care during March and April of 2020. Only one child was seropositive in March, but seven were seropositive in April for a period seroprevalence of ≈1%. Most seropositive children (6/8) were not suspected of having had COVID-19. The sera of seropositive children have neutralizing activity, including one that neutralized at a dilution > 1:18,000. Therefore, an increasing number of children seeking medical care were infected by SARS-CoV-2 during the early Seattle outbreak despite few positive viral tests.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18178-1

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