- Newly released research from the United Kingdom finds that children are much less likely to experience symptoms of “long COVID.” But this research was done before the Delta variant became widespread.
- These new findings are at odds with the U.K. government’s reported data of children experiencing long-term symptoms after COVID-19 infection.
- Also, the findings may not account for a dangerous syndrome called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, which has appeared weeks or months after a child initially developed COVID-19.
A new study from the United Kingdom provides a detailed description of COVID-19 in children ages 5 to 17 years old.
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 2,000 children who tested positive close to the onset of symptoms and whose traits were regularly reported until they were healthy again.
The findings, based on information reported through the ZOE smartphone app by parents and caregivers, indicate that the most common symptoms in children were headaches, fever, tiredness, sore throat, and loss of smell.
“Studies like this one are terribly important for informing the medical community about the natural history of COVID in children,” Dr. Michael Grosso, chief medical officer and chair, pediatrics, Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital in Long Island, New York, told Healthline. “So that we can distinguish the expected from the unexpected and provide meaningful guidance to the families of affected children.”
Source: healthline