According to a Boston Children’s Hospital study published Friday in the journal Pediatrics, more than a quarter of children and adolescents hospitalized with coronavirus infection at the start of the pandemic still had health problems two to four months later.
Researchers interviewed caregivers of patients under the age of 21 hospitalized with COVID-19 or pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). The study period ran from May 2020 to May 2021 before the vaccines became available.
Of these children and adolescents, approximately 40% were hospitalized with an acute case of COVID-19 and approximately 60% with MIS-C. 50% and 86% respectively were admitted to the ICU.
At a two to four month follow-up, 27% of patients with acute COVID-19 and 30% of patients with MIS-C had ongoing symptoms, restricted activity, or both.
“Nearly three quarters were back to baseline, which is reassuring,” said researcher Adrienne Randolph. But unfortunately more than one in four were not. While this is much better than many reports of hospitalized seniors, it is still very worrying. The risk of serious illness and ongoing complications is greater than the risk of complications from the vaccine, which are very rare.”
The expert points out that this study was limited to children and adolescents who had to be hospitalized and that it took place at the beginning of the pandemic; Most were registered prior to the arrival of the Delta variant.
“We are in the process of analyzing recent data from the Delta Period and part of the Omicron Period, including implications for health-related quality of life,” said Adrienne Randolph. I think it’s possible that there are differences. It is important to understand how all the different variants affect children and to monitor the effectiveness of vaccination to avoid long-term complications.”
“Now that vaccines are available, I strongly encourage children and young people to get vaccinated,” she added. We know patients can be reinfected even if they have had COVID-19, and we have previously shown that vaccination can prevent MIS-C and severe COVID-19.”