“Long COVID” also affects children. Now even more often than before

The so-called long COVID, i.e. the persistence of symptoms after contracting COVID-19 for three or more months after the disease, may also affect children. This is especially true since the Delta variant makes more children infected with SARS-CoV-2, more likely to have symptoms of the infection, and more hospitalized, compared to the first two waves of the pandemic.

1. The currently dominant Delta variant causes infections in children much more often than previous variants
2. Increasingly, children are also exposed to the so-called long COVID
3. Older children have this problem more often than younger ones – says Dr. Paweł Grzesiowski 
4. More information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Long COVID in children more and more often

In the first two waves of the pandemic, children contracted COVID-19 much less frequently than adults. Now, however, the situation has changed. The Delta variant is much more contagious than the previously known coronavirus variants.

These are hard to deny facts: more children get COVID, have more symptoms and more pediatric patients are hospitalized than in the first two waves of the pandemic. Of course, I am not saying that children get sick more severely than adults, but we must not think that children do not suffer from COVID-19 at all, and – as current data show – that they are not affected by the long COVID problem – says Dr. Paweł Grzesiowski, an expert of the Supreme Council. Medical Council for the fight against COVID-19.

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According to data published by the British Statistics Office (ONS) in February and updated in April 2021, 9,8 percent. children aged 2-11 and 13% 12–16 years of age reported at least one symptom for five weeks after a positive diagnosis.

This is confirmed by studies by pediatricians at Gemelli University Hospital in Rome who interviewed 129 children aged 6-16 who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between March and November 2020. They found that more than a third of children had one or two symptoms persistent for four months or more after infection, and a further one-fourth had three or more symptoms.

Long COVID in Children – Symptoms

– Insomnia, fatigue, muscle aches and persistent cold-like symptoms were common – symptoms similar to those seen in adults with chronic COVID. Even children who had mild initial symptoms or were asymptomatic, said Dr. Danilo Buonsenso.

A report published by pediatricians in April 2021 found that a quarter of children who were screened after COVID-19 discharge from hospital had symptoms more than five months later.

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This is also confirmed by the observations of German doctors. – Although these numbers are not as high as in the case of adults (among people aged 35-69 years, about 5-19% of people had symptoms 25 weeks after contracting COVID-50), they nevertheless cause concern among specialists because severe COVID-19 in children is much rarer than in adults. It was therefore assumed that most children would not experience long COVID, says Jakob Armann, pediatrician at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany.

Delta variant – children get sick more often

The largest body of evidence was gathered by pediatricians in Israel who surveyed the parents of 38 children who contracted COVID-19 after the outbreak of the Delta virus was reported. The data was made available on its website by the Israeli Ministry of Health.

Today, children constitute a quarter of all sick people. This is a huge leap and clearly the effect of the Delta variant, which infects children much more often than the previous variants. And, unfortunately, this also applies to the long COVID phenomenon.

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That inflammatory, post-inflammatory or autoimmune reactions also develop in children after contracting COVID, that’s for sure. It is also visible that older children (12-18 years old) have this problem more often than younger children (5-6 years old) – says Dr. Grzesiowski.

Some of the psychological problems reported may overlap with the effects of long-term pandemic stress and lockdown peer isolation, he said, but that is no reason to question the long-term effects of COVID in children.

Children need to be vaccinated

The expert also points to the entries of vaccination opponents appearing on the Internet suggesting that the COVID-19 virus is completely harmless to children.

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– While this was suspect at the beginning of the pandemic, now such claims are a great misconception: the British and Americans point out that the number of children with COVID has increased significantly. And these are facts that cannot be denied. Unfortunately, COVID-19 does not spare children and, moreover, it can cause postovid complications in them, not to mention the fact that in itself it is – also for them – a threat – says Dr. Grzesiowski.

As the expert emphasizes, this virus has a huge potential to trigger autoantibodies, which may translate in the future into the occurrence of various autoimmune diseases, such as short-term ones – PIMS, Guillain-Barre polyneuritis or myocarditis, as well as distant ones: such as type I diabetes, psoriasis or visceral lupus. Therefore, vaccinations against COVID in children and adolescents should be strongly recommended!

Monika Wysocka

Also read:

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3. Vaccination against COVID-19 increases the risk of a heart attack. True or false?
4. How much risk are the unvaccinated against COVID-19? The CDC is straightforward
5. Disturbing symptoms in convalescents. What to pay attention to, what to do? Doctors created a guide

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