What to Know About Long COVID in Kids

There are lots of outstanding questions about Long COVID. How many people have it? Why do some develop it and not others? Do effective treatments exist? When it comes to kids and Long COVID, there are even more questions and fewer answers. It wasn’t until earlier this year that experts even reached a consensus definition for pediatric Long COVID to use in research: one or more symptoms that last at least 12 weeks after a case of COVID-19, affect daily life, and can’t be explained by an alternate diagnosis. “There are a whole host of things that we’re just trying to figure out,” says Dr. Kathryn Moffett, who is co-leading a study at West Virginia University School of Medicine that will track children over four years to better understand how many kids get Long COVID and why. “More research is done in adults, but we need answers in kids.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Here’s what researchers know so far. How common is Long COVID in kids? Studies have arrived at different estimates for how many children develop Long COVID. But a June research review published in Scientific Reports, based on 21 previously published studies, concluded that about 25% of kids and adolescents who contract COVID-19 have symptoms that last at least four weeks—on par with the reported one in five U.S. adults who currently has Long COVID symptoms after an infection. However, the individual studies differed depending on how they were desi...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news