Post-COVID impact on children’s health

Since the beginning of the pandemic, children were considered less at risk when it came to COVID, especially severe infection. However, doctors are reporting that long COVID is affecting many kids, even if they had a mild illness in the initial infection or were asymptomatic.

We are also seeing a huge number of “persistent coughs, continuous coughs, community acquired pneumonias, bronchopneumonia, stuff that we have never seen before,” notes Dr Nihar Parekh, Pediatrician, in his latest Instagram video.

He notes that “kids we never nebulised before are getting nebulised now. Kids we never put on inhalers, require persistent inhalers. The cough is still not going and the fevers are coming back. According to the latest research, the cause behind these could be the impact of COVID-19 on our kids’ lungs.”

COVID could be the cause

On 20th September 2022, a research went online on post COVID effects on the lungs of children. The findings of the study were published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The findings show that there is a possibility that our kids, who may have gone through Delta, Omicron, asymptomatic COVID, major or minor COVID infection, may have been left behind with lung damage and weaker lungs.

What does this research show?

The researchers studied COVID-19’s effects in children and adolescents (mean age 11 years) using low-field MRI. They looked at changes in lung structure and function in 54 children and adolescents with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.

They noted that of the 54 patients, 29 had fully recovered, and 25 of them had long COVID. All but one of the patients had been unvaccinated at the time of original infection.

The study showed that 80% of the children with very mild symptoms through any form of COVID had 60% minor lung involvement.

Common long COVID symptoms in children

Dr. Amanda Morrow, a Rehabilitation Physician at Kennedy Krieger Institute and an Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, shared some of the most common long COVID symptoms that children experience. These include:

So what do we do now?

Talking about recovery, Dr Nihar Parekh says, “This is going to take time, because time is the only factor that heals these lungs.” However, he emphasizes on preventative measures, such as proper immunization.

He advises to talk to your child’s pediatrician and sort their basic immunization and catch up on pneumococcal vaccines “if you want to prevent your child from reaching hospitals with a community acquired pneumonia, which in the last two weeks we're seeing a lot, by the way.”

Along with Coronavirus, several other viruses can also cause persistent coughs and pneumonia in children, starting from newborns to 15 years of age, notes Dr. Parekh. Children should get their yearly flu shot at least till five years of age, maybe six or seven.

He adds, “They're extremely important to prevent this current damage caused by the two years of COVID virus on your child's lung and prevent hospitalization. So no vaccine prevents against the disease, but vaccines do prevent against mortality and morbidity.”

Parents should head to the doctor if their child’s symptoms don’t improve or if they develop new symptoms within one month of their initial COVID infection.

Need for rehabilitation and steady recovery

As for recovery from long COVID, Dr. Amanda Morrow notes that guidance for long COVID in adults cannot be automatically used for pediatric patients.

“Rehabilitation in children should be geared towards participation in school and extracurricular activities, social engagement that are important to a child’s typical development.”

She adds that in any long COVID case, it’s crucial to move at the specific patient’s pace instead of a set timetable.