Around 5.8 Million Children Experience Long COVID, Study Reveals; Symptoms May Vary From Case to Case

A recent study has revealed that 5.8 million children experience long COVID.

Millions of Children Endure Long COVID

Such findings were noted in the "Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 in Children" study.

According to Dr. Rachel Gross, an author of the study from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, one of the biggest challenges in monitoring the condition is that symptoms can vary from case to case.

Dr. Gross explains that in different children, long COVID can look different. Not every person with the infection exhibits the same symptoms. It may also look different depending on the onset of symptoms.

Among kids, some common symptoms of long COVID include brain fog, headaches, pain, and loss of smell and taste.

The findings have also unraveled clues pertaining to the risk of long COVID. For one, roughly 45% of children who developed the chronic infection exhibited symptoms of COVID-19, as opposed to being asymptomatic (15%). Other factors include a more severe initial infection, older age, underlying medical conditions, the number of initially affected organ systems, and a higher weight.

According to doctors, the majority of children with long-term COVID-19 get better after several months. However, roughly one-third of them exhibit symptoms even after one year.

Cardiologist Dr. John Wood, MD, Ph.D., an investigator at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and a co-author of the study, adds that long COVID has been underdiagnosed by pediatricians. The cardiologist notes that some individuals do not think that children can contract long COVID, while others are just unfamiliar with the signs and symptoms of the condition.

Dr. David Warburton, MD, a neonatologist and stem cell researcher from CHLA, notes the need to follow an enormous scope of kids throughout a long period to see the clinical course and prevalence of some of the rare symptoms.

How Long COVID Affects Kids' Health

The study also reveals that long COVID can boost a child's risk of developing type 1 diabetes. This could even turn out to be deadly and lead to a multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have described this syndrome as a serious and rare condition linked to COVID-19. Inflammation of various body parts may occur, including the lungs, heart, brain, kidneys, eyes, skin, and gastrointestinal tract.

Long COVID can also worsen chronic respiratory conditions, including asthma. Various studies have revealed that though asthma did not get worse with the initial infection, it was aggravated during the six months post-infection.

The condition can also aggravate rare connective tissue and fibromyalgia disorders, including Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. These conditions have also been associated with involuntary body function dysregulation as well as chronic fatigue syndrome.