serology study starting in alberta to better understand covid-19 immunity in children

by stephanie babycha team of researchers from the university of calgary is in the beginning stages of a two-year serology study to better understand the transmission and immune response to covid-19 in children.the researchers are in the process of enrolling approximately 1,000 calgary children under the age of 18 in the study, which requires they have a sample of blood taken every six months for two years. they’re looking to enrol children who have tested positive for covid-19, children who have been tested and received a negative result, and children who are healthy and have neither been tested nor diagnosed.serology tests are blood tests that look for antibodies — proteins that are made in response to infections — which can detect infections even in people who developed few or no symptoms.the results are expected to offer insight into children’s immunity against covid-19 infections over time, how children’s immune systems react to the virus and determine the clinical effect of covid-19 infections in children, according to dr. jim kellner, a professor and researcher at the university’s cumming school of medicine.“what we want to identify is not only if you have covid-19 antibodies today but, if you have them, do you still have them six months or 12 months or 18 months from now. one thing we don’t know is how long the antibodies might last, especially if you’ve had a mild infection in the first place,” kellner said in a phone interview june 29.the team will collect basic clinical information about the children participating in the study, including about symptoms and who they were in contact with if they tested positive for covid-19. each followup visit will include a checkup to see how they’re doing.“what we expect is, in the children who were healthy, over time and over the course of two years more and more of them might end up positive for covid-19 or having antibodies, because we expect a lot more of the population will be exposed to and develop antibodies,” said kellner.“the initial results will be important to see where we’re at today, how many of the children who were healthy already have antibodies. it’ll give a sense of how much it’s gone through the community . . . it will inform decisions like school opening and how careful to be with children.”children don’t tend to get sick as often from covid-19 but kellner said they likely have an important role in passing the infection to others.“this is important information to have going forward as we try to open things up, send children to school and return to usual activities. this will help us better understand what’s happening to children and whether we can support or be cautious about certain things,” he said.serology testing for covid-19 was first authorized by health canada on may 12, when — in a news release — the federal agency said serology testing would be key to managing the epidemic in canada and informing public health decisions going forward.kellner is leading the alberta childhood covid-19 cohort (ab3c) study with a team of child health and wellness scientists and physicians from the university of calgary and university of alberta, and medical staff from alberta health services and the alberta children’s hospital.

researchers in edmonton will conduct a similar serology study to calgary’s on 1,000 children but, with the lower level of covid-19 cases overall in edmonton, the results are expected to be quite different.“although children haven’t gotten very sick from it, there are about 1,000 people under 20 who have been diagnosed with covid-19 and most of those are in the calgary zone,” said kellner.“in edmonton, the study will be almost all healthy kids because there has been far less covid-19 in children up there.”the data collected from the studies in calgary and edmonton, plus data collected from other studies on children from across the province, will be pooled together to see the overall effect covid-19 has on children in alberta.when he announced there would be four large-scale serology studies starting in alberta, health minister tyler shandro said there are limits to serology testing. for example, it can’t tell if a person is immune to covid-19 or for how long a person might be immune, or if a person is currently sick or contagious. but it does offer valuable information to researchers who are working to analyze the new coronavirus.“serology testing will help us find out and contribute to the global evidence, which will help all jurisdictions moving forward,” shandro said during a news conference june 12.of the other two studies, one will test samples of blood anonymously that were collected for other purposes in every corner of the province, and another will test select albertans over the age of 45.children can be signed up for the study and more information is available on the website research4kids.ucalgary.ca/covid-in-kids/home. they hope to be testing children within the next couple of weeks.sbabych@postmedia.comtwitter: @babychstephaniedon’t miss the latest on covid-19, reopening and life. subscribe to healthing’s daily newsletter coming out of covid.