Vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough may give children protection against COVID-19, a scientist from the Complutense University of Madrid has discovered.

Pedro Antonio Reche says that there is enough evidence of a link that the general public should be given the combination vaccines. 

Statistically, older people have been far more prone to suffer severe symptoms of coronavirus around the globe and the new research concludes that there is more to it than simply the natural deterioration of the bodies' resistance through age.

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Reche, from the Spanish university's medical faculty, has found evidence to show that regular kids' vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough could be giving protection. 

In his study, published in Frontiers in Immunology, he accepts that older people are more likely to get infections because their immune systems have deteriorated – but says young children should also be vulnerable.

Reche reinforces this point by explaining how in less developed societies, until the introduction of vaccines, child mortality has been high and an important reason for reducing the life expectancy in these countries.

"That newborns and infants, with undertrained adaptive immune systems, are safe from COVID-19 is unexpected, but telling," said Reche.

He states in his study that there is cross-reactive immunity, or a crossover, with pediatric vaccines giving protection against coronavirus.

"Activation of cross-reactive memory B and T cells can lead to protective immunity but also induce life-threatening immunopathology," he said. "In this context, we reasoned that children are likely protected from SARS-CoV-2 by cross-reactive adaptive immunity elicited through vaccinations. 

"Immunity elicited by vaccines wanes over time, which will leave adults more susceptible to COVID-19, and perhaps cross-reactive immunity from pathogens may in some cases protect or enhance the severity of the disease."

It is normal now for medical staff to administer combination vaccines, including the one for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, when children are just a couple of months old.

"We found numerous cross-reactive epitopes between antigens in tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (DTP) vaccines and SARS-CoV-2, including T cell epitopes with broad population protection coverage and potentially neutralizing B-cell epitopes," continued Reche in his study.

"Overall, our results clearly support that cross-reactive immunity from DTP vaccines can be protecting children against SARS-CoV-2 and could protect the general population."

Reche concluded that there is enough evidence to support giving DTP vaccinations to the general population to tackle COVID-19.

"Worldwide, children receive several DTP vaccinations, including three-four doses the first year of life and one at four to six years of age. Moreover, a low antigenic Tdap dose is also given at ages nine to 14. Thereby, children may well be protected from SARS-CoV-2 through cross-reactive immunity elicited by DTP vaccinations, supporting testing in the general population to prevent COVID-19," he wrote.