Take your doubts about the long Covid in children

Despite the low incidence among children, long Covid can also affect them, even if they are immunized.

The syndrome is characterized by recurrent or persistent symptoms – headache, stomachache or tiredness, for example, after the period of acute infection with the coronavirus. The factors responsible for triggering the disease in recovered patients are still unknown.

According to the WHO (World Health Organization), long-term Covid can appear three months after the onset of infection, with symptoms that last at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis. The condition gained disease status in October 2021.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, we were very focused on adults, who were most exposed, most infected and had severe symptoms. Over time, we began to observe an increase in Covid cases among children, especially in 2021, and also symptoms of long-term Covid in this pediatric age group”, says immunologist Ana Karolina Barreto Marinho, member of the Scientific Department of Immunization at Asbai (Brazilian Association of Allergy and Immunology).

In the absence of exams that prove the long Covid, parents should be aware of small signs, including behavioral – if the child remains unwell after the period of acute infection, or if they do not want to play or move as before.

With the arrival of school holidays, new cases of Covid-19 should decrease, in the assessment of pediatrician Ana Escobar, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of USP.

“A month of vacation, children at home will have less contact with other people and also a lot of people will travel”, says the expert.

The recent increase in coronavirus infections is due to the high transmissibility of the circulating subvariants of the omicron and the low level of protective measures.

“Although Covid presents itself with a lighter picture in children, Covid is Covid and we always have to be very careful. The disease has taught us one thing: we have to respect this virus. highlights the pediatrician.

Next, check out more information about Covid-19 in children.

In Covid long, is there a predominant age group?

It can affect all ages. Pediatrician Ana Escobar explains that the long-term Covid depends much more on the child’s immune status, the situation they are in and the presence or absence of some underlying disease, such as pulmonary, rheumatological, chronic diseases – such as diabetes – immunodeficiencies. and neurological diseases. Children with chronic pathologies are more susceptible.

According to the doctor Ana Karolina, the most recent data show that they are children in the first two years of life up to 13, 14 years of age. “It is important to emphasize that in very young children the diagnosis is more difficult, because the symptoms will not be the most classic, of older children who are able to communicate better”, says the immunologist.

Is the duration of long Covid in children and adults the same?

Children have some symptoms that persist for about 20 or 30 days and then disappear, according to Ana Escobar. In adults, the long Covid can last for months. They have more loss of smell and taste, headache, complaints of tiredness, lack of memory and hair loss – it is a little later and has been observed about two or three months after Covid.

How to identify if the symptoms are of long Covid or reinfection by the coronavirus?

Reinfection can occur four months after the diagnosis of Covid, because the antibody rate lasts for that period. “It’s not common to be reinfected right away. In the long-term Covid, instead of a set of symptoms, one or two persists, at most”, explains pediatrician Ana Escobar.

In Brazil, children under five are not eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine. In this case, can they have severe long-term Covid?

The unvaccinated and without underlying pathology have less than 1% of [risco de] go to the ICU, emphasizes Ana Escobar. This means that Covid in children affects more leniently. In those vaccinated, this rate is even lower, due to protection against the severity of the disease.

What takes a post-Covid child to the ICU is the pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (SIM-P), which can appear 15 days after Covid. A rare condition, the disease affects one in every 3,000 children and young people under the age of 21 who contract Covid. It occurs due to an intense reaction of the immune system to try to fight the coronavirus and can affect several vital organs, such as the heart. The mortality rate in Brazil is 6%, four times lower than in the USA.

The symptoms of SIM-P are high fever, headache, red spots on the skin, red eyes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, drop in blood pressure, tachycardia, seizures, mental confusion and enlarged lymph nodes, among others.