1 in 4 symptomatic children get long COVID, a new study finds. What are the symptoms?

A quarter of children with COVID-19 symptoms develop "long COVID," according to data pooled from 21 studies previously carried out in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America.

Among the 80,071 children with coronavirus in the studies, 25 per cent developed symptoms that lasted at least 4-to-12 weeks or new persistent symptoms that appeared within 12 weeks, researchers reported on medRxiv ahead of peer review.

The lack of peer review at this point means the research should be handled with caution, but the large amount of data it relies on could help shed more light on the symptoms most frequently associated with long COVID.

“Until now, the focus was primarily aimed at the acute phase of the disease,” the study’s authors said.

“However, once the acute phase of COVID-19 is over, many individuals experience months of debilitating COVID-19 symptoms that requires additional medical attention and follow-up”.

Severe COVID-19 disease is less common in children than in adults. But existing research shows children can face serious consequences several weeks after infection: multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) and long COVID.

MIS-C is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs.

It is extremely rare but requires intensive care support in most cases.

Long COVID is a condition for which there is still no precise and definitive definition. It includes symptoms that persist, develop, or fluctuate after getting sick with COVID.

In October 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a clinical definition stating that long COVID generally occurs three months from the onset of COVID-19, with symptoms lasting at least two months that