Ebola affects young children most

The data was compiled and analysed by researchers at ICL and the World Health Organisation (WHO) and was taken from cases recorded during the current outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, comparing them to cases in adults.

The study also found that Ebola progresses more quickly and is more likely to be fatal to children under five years old.

“The findings of this study emphasise that children suffering from Ebola need the highest quality medical care

WHO’s Chris Dye

As of March 2015, nearly 4,000 children under 16 have been affected by Ebola in the current epidemic, around a fifth of all confirmed and probable cases, ICL said.

According to ICL, the proportion of cases made up by children has been gradually increasing over the course of the epidemic, but the explanation for this is unclear.

When broken down, results suggest Ebola has affected young children most severely, killing around 90% of children aged under one year old and around 80% of children aged one to four years who are infected.

ICL said older children are much more likely to survive the disease - it has killed 52% of those infected aged 10 to 15.

By way of comparison, for adults aged 16 to 44, the case fatality rate is 65%.

Chris Dye, head of WHO’s Ebola epidemiology team in Geneva and a co-author of the study, said: “The findings of this study emphasise that children suffering from Ebola need the highest quality medical care, but they leave open the question of why older children, aged 10-15 years, appear to be less vulnerable to Ebola than either infants or adults.

“This is a topic for future research.”

Robert Fowler, co-author of the study, suggested that the very youngest children appeared to have the worst outcomes from Ebola.

“We suspect that numerous factors are at play,” Fowler said.

“First, the youngest of children are so dependent upon others for their care and wellbeing, and their caregivers may have also been unwell due to Ebola.

“Additionally, Ebola frequently causes a vomiting and diarrhoeal illness that leads to dehydration and electrolyte and metabolic abnormalities. This is not different from adults, but children seem to have less reserve, and get sick more quickly,” he said.

However, one year on from the start of the current Ebola outbreak, some experts suggest “there is little evidence that donors have learnt key lessons about how aid can be used to prevent the scale of such epidemics in the future”.

That is according to Sebastian Taylor of the University of East Anglia’s School of International Development.

“The emergency treatment centres and rapid-deployment teams that have characterised the international response to Ebola in West Africa are unlikely to last,” Taylor said.

“Within a year, their effects will have faded, and health systems in those countries will, in the absence of a real change in donor policy, revert to the levels of weakness we saw before Ebola - ready for the next epidemic outbreak.”