A new study published this week in the JAMA medical journal, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reveals similar but distinguishable patterns between school-age children (ages 6-11 years) and adolescents (ages 12-17 years) and identified their most common symptoms in long COVID . The study aims to understand, diagnose, treat and prevent long COVID, a condition marked by symptoms and health problems that linger after an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. 3 View gallery COVID test ( Photo: Shutterstock ) Children and adolescents were found to experience prolonged symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection in almost every organ system with most having symptoms affecting more than one system.
"Most research characterizing long COVID symptoms is focused on adults, which can lead to the misperception that long COVID in children is rare or that their symptoms are like those of adults," said David Goff, M.D., Ph.
D., division director for the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. "Because the symptoms can vary from child to child or present in different patterns, without a proper characterization of symptoms across the life span, it's difficult to know how to optimize care for affected children and adolescents.
" The observational study included 3,860 children and adolescents with a SARS-CoV-2 infection history at more than 60 sites across the United States between March 2022 and December 2023. A co.