Kids Get Long COVID, Too. They’re Not Getting Helped Fast Enough

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

 

A recent report found 5.8 million U.S. kids have long COVID. Here’s what you need to know now.

 

Updated Aug 26, 2024

 

...a new large analysis published this year in the journal Pediatrics found 5.8 million American kids have long COVID—symptoms lasting at least six months after infection. The report estimated that, much like adults, 10% to 20% of kids who get sick with COVID-19 develop this complex, poorly understood post-infection syndrome that can affect almost every system in the body. The problem is, it can be really hard to diagnose and even harder to find someone who recognizes the signs and knows how to help your child get better.

 

Who Develops Long COVID?

As we found out firsthand, any kid can develop long COVID. “Research indicates that long COVID can affect previously healthy children and adolescents, including those who experienced only mild cases of COVID-19,” says Carlos Oliveira, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. At the same time, he adds, kids who got severely ill during that initial infection have a potential double whammy, as they are “significantly more likely to develop long COVID.”

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The stakes are high, as many kids across the country and world are having their lives upended by long COVID, says Jessica Snowden, M.D., chief of pediatric infectious disease and vice dean for research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR. “I hear from parents and children all the time who are struggling with a wide variety of long COVID symptoms, from school problems to breathing concerns.”

 

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Health Central

https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/coronavirus/pediatric-long-covid

 

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/153/3/e2023062570/196606/Postacute-Sequelae-of-SARS-CoV-2-in-Children

 

Edited September 2 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Long Covid symptoms in kids aren’t one-size-fits-all, study shows

Headaches dominate in very young, fatigue in adolescents

Aug. 21, 2024

 

Rachel Gross wants to clear up misconceptions about children and Covid-19. A pediatrician and population health researcher, she recalls a time four years ago when people didn’t think children could even contract the disease. Then, after accepting kids’ vulnerability to the virus, it was thought only adults could suffer from the myriad symptoms that persist or crop up post-infection, collectively known as long Covid.

 

Now that it’s clear kids can also develop long Covid, Gross wants to correct assumptions that the condition looks the same in adults as in children, no matter their age. In new research published Wednesday in JAMA, Gross and the RECOVER-Pediatrics Consortium report that school-age children and adolescents experience similar long Covid symptoms across multiple organ systems, but those symptoms cluster in ways that vary depending on their age while diverging to some degree from the pattern seen in adults.

 

As part of the federally funded RECOVER initiative focused on post-acute sequelae of SARS-Cov-2, or PASC for short, the study found that school-age children (6 to 11 years old) with prolonged symptoms were more likely than uninfected children to experience headaches (57%); trouble with memory, focusing, and sleeping (44%); and abdominal pain (43%) at least four weeks after Covid. Infected adolescents (12 to 17 years old) more often had daytime fatigue, sleepiness, and low energy (80%); body, muscle, or joint pain (55%); and trouble with memory and focusing (47%) post-infection than uninfected peers. 

 

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STAT

https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/21/long-covid-symptoms-children-recover/

 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2822770