Long COVID in children: frequency and diagnostic challenges

Abstract

Purpose - to analyze the prevalence of symptoms of long COVID-19 in the pediatric population and the methods of their diagnosis. Electronic search of scientific research using known databases from PubMed, SCOPUS, ResearchGate, Wiley Online Library and Google Scholar from 2019 to February 2023. The keywords for this review: long COVID, post COVID, COVID-19, pediatrics, children, adolescents, post-acute sequelae of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection (PASC). Exclusion criteria were: duplicated, dedicated exclusively to adults, analyzed only acute COVID-19. In the analysis were included research from the post-Covid period in children and adolescents, which contained the results of the assessment of their state of health and displayed certain clinical manifestations that remained after the end of the acute infection within 4-12 weeks. Optimistic forecasts regarding the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the child population at the beginning of the pandemic quite quickly passed into the stage of uncertainty in forecasts of the course of the post-Covid period and the consequences of the transferred disease. Most children infected with COVID-19 recover, but some of them have persistent symptoms after an infection. The true prevalence of “long-term COVID” is under investigation study. Reports on the range of its manifestations are very diverse and differ in conclusions about the intensity of their impact on the quality of children’s life. Hence, there is an obvious need for long-term clinical observations with a mandatory comparison with the data of control groups appropriate age. Because this category of convalescents will need of a multidisciplinary approach in monitoring them, and therefore they will bear a significant burden on the health care system. No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.