Long Covid in children
January 9, 2022. Eur J Pediatr. Long COVID symptoms and duration in SARS-CoV-2 positive children – a nationwide cohort study
Long Covid in children is rare and generally short-lived. What we know:
• Reports of “long Covid” in adults are on the rise.
• Only a few studies have evaluated long-term recovery from COVID-19 in children and common to all studies is the small sample size (mean number of children including 330) and most do not have a control group.
New:
• 0.8% of SARS-CoV-2 positive infants reported symptoms lasting> 4 weeks (“long covid”), compared with a control group.
• The most common symptoms of “long Covid” were fatigue, loss of smell and taste, dizziness, muscle weakness, chest pain and breathing problems.
• These symptoms cannot be caused by psychological sequelae related to social restrictions.
• Symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, headache, muscle and joint pain and nausea are not “long covid” symptoms.
• In most cases, “long covid” symptoms resolve within 1-5 months.
Covid-19, trend and severity among symptomatic children aged 0-17 in 10 European countries
December 16, 2021. Eurosurveillance. COVID-19 trends and severity among symptomatic children aged 0–17 years in 10 European Union countries, 3 August 2020 to 3 October 2021Pediatric hospital admissions for COVID-19 have increased with increasing overall transmission rates. Individual risks of a severe COVID-19 outcome were substantially high for children with a comorbidity compared to healthy children, but the majority of children admitted to this study with data on comorbidities had no reported comorbidities.
Preventive measures to reduce transmission and severe outcomes in children remain critical, as well as timely and comprehensive submission of surveillance data to facilitate assessment of the spread of the virus following the emergence of new variants.
October 25, 2021. J Paediatr Child Health. COVID-19 in children. II: Pathogenesis, disease spectrum and managementAcute SARS-CoV-2 infection is usually mild in children, while post-infectious manifestations, including temporally associated pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS) and “long Covid” in children , are more complex.
Given that most research on COVID-19 has focused on cohorts of adults and that clinical manifestations, availability of treatments and impacts differ greatly in children, priority needs to be given to research that specifically examines COVID-19 in children. children, the researchers point out.
October 13, 2021. J Paediatr Child Health. COVID-19 in children: I. Epidemiology, prevention and indirect impacts.
This review explores the direct and indirect impact of COVID-19 on children’s health: specifically the dynamics of transmission, vaccination strategies, and most importantly, the “shadow pandemic,” which includes the underestimated indirect effects of the pandemic on children: risks to mental health and well-being, interruption of family income and associated stressors, including increased family violence, delayed medical care, and the critical problem of prolonged loss of face-to-face learning in a normal school setting.
Alongside this, the amplification of existing inequalities and the creation of new conditions of disadvantage are likely to be further sequelae, with children from vulnerable families disproportionately affected.