Children and teens exhibit specific symptoms if they develop Long COVID The symptoms vary between children, teens and adults Researchers are working on a tool to help diagnose Long COVID in children THURSDAY, Aug. 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Kids and teens are vulnerable to Long COVID just as adults are, with a set of distinct symptoms showing long-term health effects, a new study shows. Ten symptoms in school-age children and 8 in teenagers indicate the likely presence of long COVID, according to findings published Aug.
21 in the Journal of the American Medical Association . School kids in particular have symptom clusters revolving around problems with memory or focusing, sleep problems and stomach symptoms, results showed. On the other hand, teenagers tended to suffer symptoms related to loss of taste or smell -- something not experienced in school kids, researchers said.
The research is “a first step toward a tool that could someday be used to identify Long COVID in children and adolescents -- a widely understudied group -- but it will likely change and expand as we learn more, and is not intended to be used as a clinical tool today,” said researcher Dr. Rachel Gross , an associate professor of pediatrics and population health at NYU Langone, said in an NYU news release. An estimated 65 million people worldwide are living with Long COVID, which tends to develop weeks after an initial infection with COVID-19 .
Long COVID can last weeks, months or even years. “Most re.