Long COVID: It’s not just adults

According to an international children’s hospital network study, the post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) is consistent with what has become known as long COVID and lasts for three months for many children seeking emergency care for acute illness. Did.

Of the 1,884 children diagnosed with COVID-19 infection who received 90 days of follow-up, 5.8% of those who were seen in the emergency department or hospital for COVID-19 were PCC, most often malaise. Reported sensation or weakness, coughing, shortness of breath, shortness of breath, and other respiratory symptoms.

Stephen Freedman, MDCM, MSc, and colleagues at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Institute in Calgary found that this percentage was high among hospitalized children, with 9.8% reporting PCC symptoms and 4.6 among children discharged from the emergency department. Reported that it was%.of JAMA network open..

A comparison of consistent analyzes showed similar symptoms in 5.0% of hospitalized children without SARS-CoV-2 infection and 2.7% of hospitalized children without SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In their study, the proportion of long COVIDs was lower than previously reported for adults, but risk factor findings were consistent with previous studies surrounding PCC in adult patients, putting children on similar hurdles. Indicates that you are facing.

Children who had 4 or more symptoms at the time of their emergency visit, were hospitalized for 48 hours or more, or were 14 years or older were more likely to report PCC.

PCC is more common in patients with more index emergency visit symptoms, from 4.7% of patients hospitalized with 1-3 symptoms to 22.7% of patients hospitalized with 7 or more symptoms, asymptomatic. They increased from 1.5% to 11.2% respectively. hospitalized patient.

“Unfortunately, there is no known treatment for long-term COVID in children and more research is needed in this area,” said Todd Florin, MD, MSCE of Lully Children’s Hospital in Chicago. press release.. “But if the symptoms are severe, targeted treatment is of utmost importance. If the symptoms affect quality of life, interdisciplinary care is needed.”

The group said the findings on PCC among children remained inconsistent and “under-explained.” “Early reports estimate that 25% to 58% of children experience PCC months after acute illness, and its occurrence was not associated with disease severity,” co-authored with Freedman. Is writing. “However, in a subsequent study of SARS-CoV-2 positive children who were primarily unhospitalized, only 4% were symptomatic 28 days after the test and 56 days after the test. There was 2%. “

They “reflect that the reduced prevalence of PCC in our study has a high follow-up rate and therefore a low risk of bias and uses different approaches to induce PCC. It’s possible, “he added.

They concluded that it was higher than found in uninfected children, regardless of the exact prevalence.

Their data were taken from 39 different pediatric emergency departments within the Pediatric Emergency Research Network and ranged from March 7, 2020 to January 20, 2021. Children are from the United States, Italy, Paraguay, Singapore, Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica and Spain.

The average age of the patients was 3 years and 52.8% of the group were male.

The association with age may reflect the fact that younger, less verbal children are less likely to report certain symptoms than verbal teenagers, “the researchers said. I am writing. The findings were also “consistent with an adult study that found that the presence of five or more symptoms in an acute illness was associated with PCC.”

The limitation is that the association may not have been unique to SARS-CoV-2 infection and it is not possible to draw causal conclusions such as “infection may be associated with symptom perception”. Was included. In addition, there are no follow-up antibody tests, and the findings are prior to the new SARS-CoV-2 mutant of concern and may not be extrapolated to children not seeking emergency care. ..