[ad_1]
As for the handcuffs, the children have been largely saved. They can infect and spread the virus, but they have a low risk of becoming seriously ill or dying. However, like adults, they may have symptoms that continue beyond the initial infection. This condition, known as the post-acute sequence after SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is often referred to as the “long” covido.
Alok Patel, a pediatrician at Stanford Children’s Hospital Lucile Packard, says it should be taken seriously. “Even though the covetous itself — an acute infection — is more severe in children, the long covido is very debilitating, isolating, and frightening for families.”
Why are we talking about this now?
The vaccine is changing the demographics of the pandemic. As more adults become involved, the proportion of cases among children and young people is increasing. The absolute number of cases among children is still lower than at the time of the pandemic, but infection rates in children have not dropped as rapidly as in adults.
That makes sense. As the virus is still circulating, it will “hit the most vulnerable people, that is, people who have not been vaccinated.” Sean O’Leary, vice chair of the AAP’s Infectious Diseases Committee, told NPR. Children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine, and young people who can get the shot have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the United States. “A lot of attention has been paid to these postpartum symptoms in adults,” says Patel. But “we haven’t had the strong data we really need in the child population.” That is slowly starting to change.
How common is it that is long hidden in children?
That’s the problem – we don’t know. “There’s just a shortage of good medical literature and peer-to-peer published literature on this subject,” says Alicia Johnston, an infectious disease specialist and head of the new postpartum clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital. And the few studies out there have drastically different rates.
For example, researchers in Italy examined the caregivers of 109 infected children and found that 42% of children had at least one symptom two months after diagnosis. At four months, the number had dropped to 27%.
[ad_2]
Source link
