COVID's long shadow: Symptoms may last 2 to 18 months

A pair of studies published today detail long COVID, with US researchers finding that more than one in four pediatric patients hospitalized for COVID-19 or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) had persistent symptoms or impaired activity 2 to 4 months later, and a Norwegian study revealing that nearly half of patients with mild COVID-19 still had symptoms after 1 year.MIS-C is a rare but serious post-infectious complication of COVID-19.Fatigue, weakness most common in kidsIn the first study, published in Pediatrics, a team led by University of Colorado and Boston Children's Hospital researchers surveyed family caregivers of 119 pediatric COVID-19 survivors and 160 MIS-C patients younger than 21 years at 2 to 4 months after admission to 25 US pediatric hospitals from May 2020 to May 2021.The study took place before the Delta variant surge and the availability of COVID-19 vaccines for this age-group.Roughly half of the COVID-19 patients were boys, 66.4% had underlying medical conditions, and 32.8% were obese.

MIS-C patients were most often 5 years or older, 58.1% were boys, 69.4% were previously healthy, 11.9% had a previously diagnosed respiratory condition (89% of cases were asthma), and 31.2% were obese.Most participants were admitted to an intensive care unit.

Thirteen children and teens diagnosed as having COVID-19 (11%) and 12 MIS-C patients (8%) were readmitted to the hospital. Thirty-two COVID-19 survivors (26.9%) reported lingering symptoms (22.7%) or impaired activity (14.3%) at 2 to 4 months, and 48 MIS-C patients (30.0%) reported persistent symptoms (20.0%) or impaired activity (21.3%).Among COVID-19 patients, symptoms and impaired activity at 2 to 4 months were linked to more organ system