Even mild infections can leave children suffering with severe long Covid, doctors warn

Professor of global health at the University of Washington, Theo Vos, who has been working with data gathered from international studies — including one study involving 13,500 children — said symptoms can be divided into three clusters: fatigue-related, respiratory symptoms, and cognitive symptoms.

“The proportion of people under the age of 20 experiencing these three symptoms clusters is smaller than that in adults,” he said. 

“It’s at about half the occurrence of men above the age of 20, and a quarter of the occurrence in adult women.”
He said 8% of children who had symptomatic Covid-19 developed one or more clusters.

Even though these proportions are lower in kids (than adults), it still translates into 24m cases in the years 2020 and 2021.

The analysis shows 96% of these long Covid cases occurred in children who had not been in hospital, Dr Vos said.

“A milder course of the initial infection can still lead to long Covid, and indeed this is the vast majority of cases,” he said.

However the data also shows in the majority of cases symptoms resolve more quickly among children who were not hospitalised, he said.

“The risk is estimated to be considerably lower with Omicron infections at one-quarter to one-third of risk of previous variants,” Dr Vos said. “But when multiplied with larger numbers of infections it still would concern a lot of people.” 

Speaking from Colombia, Carolina Toro said the rehabilitation centre in Medellin is treating a growing number of children with long Covid who were previously healthy.

Doctors have twice as many appointments as before the pandemic, with children frequently saying they cannot play football, Dr Toro said.

Developmental regression is a challenge, including children needing help to re-learn walking and talking. They also experience severe muscle aches, joint pain, panic disorder and coughing. She said: 

We have also been struck by how many children we are seeing with recent diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder and attention deficit disorder.

Dr Toro urged pediatricians to “think in long Covid” and be aware of potential links between recent Covid infection and new symptoms.

Elizabeth Semper, a mother whose three young children have long Covid, told the seminar that they went from being “strong healthy children” to simply surviving, she said. 

She called on the medical community to act faster on growing evidence of long Covid among under-18s.

“Parents are terrified for their children’s health,” she said. 

“It is so painful for your family. We beg you to listen up. Children and young people are suffering and need you. Please don’t hesitate.”