ArticleInternational journal of epidemiology2022
SARS-CoV-2 viral-load distribution reveals that viral loads increase with age: a retrospective cross-sectional cohort study.
Article in International journal of epidemiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnostic accuracy of SARS-CoV-2 antigen test in the pediatric population: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Pediatrics and neonatology · 2023Pooled it
- The Wells-Riley Model Revisited II: Parameter Uncertainty and Population Heterogeneity.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2026Article
- Frequency, dynamics, and duration of faecal shedding in SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals, a scoping review.Epidemiology and infection · 2026Article
- The Impact of Aging Oral Health on Long COVID-19.Journal of dental research · 2025Review
- Airway epithelial SARS-CoV-2 infectious and repair responses: relationships to age, sex, and post-COVID pulmonary syndromes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 infection heightens the risk of developing HPV-related carcinoma in situ and cancer.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Article
- Relationship between the Viral Load in Patients with Different COVID-19 Severities and SARS-CoV-2 Variants.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Digital PCR to Measure SARS-CoV-2 RNA, Variants, and Outcomes in Youth.Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society · 2023Article
- Cycle Threshold Values as Indication of Increasing SARS-CoV-2 New Variants, England, 2020-2022.Emerging infectious diseases · 2023Article
- The Influence of Ventilation Measures on the Airborne Risk of Infection in Schools: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Diagnostic accuracy of the Panbio COVID-19 antigen rapid test device for SARS-CoV-2 detection in Kenya, 2021: A field evaluation.PloS one · 2023Article
- Innate and adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and predisposing factors.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- A collaborative approach to improving representation in viral genomic surveillance.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Are SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in children lower than in adults?The Journal of infection · 2023Article
- Association of SARS-CoV-2 viral load distributions with individual demographics and suspected variant type: results from the Liverpool community testing pilot, England, 6 November 2020 to 8 September 2021.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2023Article
- Sensitivity of Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Tests for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Through Time.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2022Article
- A collaborative approach to improve representation in viral genomic surveillance.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2022Article
- High Prevalence of Undocumented SARS-CoV-2 Infections in the Pediatric Population of the Tyrolean District of Schwaz.Viruses · 2022Article
- Shedding of infectious SARS-CoV-2 despite vaccination.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
20 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDescribing the SARS-CoV-2 viral-load distribution in different patient groups and age categories.
methodsAll results from first nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) swabs from unique patients tested via SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) collected between 1 January and 1 December 2020 predominantly in the Public Health Services regions Kennemerland and Hollands Noorden, province of North Holland, the Netherlands, were included in this study. SARS-CoV-2 PCR crossing-point (Cp)-values were used to estimate viral loads.
resultsIn total, 278 455 unique patients were tested, of whom 9.1% (n = 25.374) were SARS-CoV-2-positive. PCRs performed by Public Health Services (n = 211 914), in which sampling and inclusion were uniform, revealed a clear relation between age and SARS-CoV-2 viral load, with especially children aged <12 years showing lower viral loads than adults (β: -0.03, 95% confidence interval: -0.03 to -0.02, p < 0.001), independently of sex and/or symptom duration. Interestingly, the median Cp-values between the >79- and <12-year-old populations differed by more than four PCR cycles, suggesting an ∼16-fold difference in viral load. In addition, the proportion of children aged <12 years with a low load (Cp-value >30) was higher compared with other patients (31.1% vs 17.2%, p-value < 0.001).
conclusionsIn patients tested by Public Health Services, SARS-CoV-2 viral load increases with age. Further studies should elucidate whether the lower viral load in children is indeed related to their suggested limited role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Moreover, as rapid antigen tests are less sensitive than PCR, these results suggest that SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests have lower sensitivity in children than in adults.
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