Data on long Covid in UK children is cause for
concern, scientists say
With lack of vaccinations and schools in England set
to reopen cases must not be ignored, experts warn
Natalie
Grover Science correspondent
Tue 2 Mar
2021 06.00 GMTLast modified on Tue 2 Mar 2021 07.59 GMT
ONS data found 13% of under 11s and about 15% of 12-
to 16-year-olds reported at least one symptom five weeks after a confirmed
Covid-19 infection.
Scientists have warned that emerging data on long
Covid in children should not be ignored given the lack of a vaccine for this
age group, but cautioned that the evidence describing these enduring symptoms
in the young is so far uncertain.
Recently
published data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has caused worry.
The data suggest that 13% of under 11s and about 15% of 12- to 16-year-olds
reported at least one symptom five weeks after a confirmed Covid-19 infection.
ONS samples households randomly, therefore positive cases do not depend on
having had symptoms and being tested.
With
schools in England poised to reopen on Monday – Prof Christina Pagel, a member
of the Independent Sage committee and director of clinical operational research
at University College London – in a Twitter post suggested that although
emerging data on long Covid in children was uncertain, it should not be
ignored, particularly given there was no licensed vaccine for these age groups,
and there probably won’t be until the end of this year or early next year.
Although
children are relatively less likely to become infected, transmit the virus and
be hospitalised, the key question is whether even mild or asymptomatic
infection can lead to long Covid in children, said Danny Altmann, professor of
immunology at Imperial College London.
“The answer
is that it certainly can, and the long Covid support groups contain a not
insignificant number of children and teens,” Altmann said.
Sammie
Mcfarland, a 45-year-old fitness instructor, and her 14-year-old daughter,
Kitty, have endured a plethora of symptoms ranging from mild to debilitating
since getting infected last March. Their initial attempt in May to get help led
to a nurse diagnosing Mcfarland as depressed, and her daughter mimicking her
symptoms.
“I came
away from that appointment feeling very broken, and very unheard and
questioning my own sanity,” said Mcfarland. “And then I spent three days in bed
being very tearful … and I woke up after the third day thinking that I can’t be
the only one.”
She then
found a support group for adult “long haulers” online.
While
Covid-19 was initially understood to be a largely respiratory illness from
which most people would recover within two or three weeks, as the pandemic wore
on increasing numbers reported experiencing symptoms for months on end. These
long haulers – with symptoms affecting organs ranging from the heart to the
brain – have no standardised treatment plan.
As the
summer dragged on, mother and daughter didn’t get much better. Mcfarland said she
felt compelled to reach out to other families whose children were in the same
boat. Eventually, the group Long Covid Kids was born – now the support group
includes about 1,700 children with long-term symptoms post-Covid-19.
Frances
Simpson, a lecturer in psychology at Coventry University and co-founder of the
group, said she was very worried about the emerging data on long Covid in
children. “We just think that there should be a much more cautious and curious
approach to long Covid rather than a kind of a sweeping generalisation that
children are OK, and that we should just let them all go back to school without
any measures being put in place.”
One issue,
she said, is the sizeable gap between acute infection and long Covid kicking
off. Some children are initially asymptomatic or have mild symptoms but then it
might be six or seven weeks before they start experiencing long Covid symptoms,
which can range from standard post-viral fatigue and headaches to
neuropsychiatric symptoms such as seizures, or even skin lesions.
At the
moment there is no consensus on the scale and impact of long Covid in adults,
but emerging data is concerning. For children, the data is even more scarce.
Recent
reports from hospitals in Sweden and Italy have generated concern, but this
data is not from national trials – they are single-centre studies – and include
relatively small patient numbers, said Sir Terence Stephenson, a Nuffield
professor of child health at University College London.
Stephenson
was awarded £1.36m last month to lead a study investigating long Covid in 11-
to 17-year-olds. “I don’t have a scientific view on what long Covid is in young
people is – because frankly, we don’t know,” he said.
Preliminary
results are expected in three months.
As for the
ONS results, critics say that given there is no comparator group – and some
symptoms such as fever and cough are common in childhood – the data is not
entirely reliable.
“I don’t
know that that is a very accurate way of gathering data … I don’t think that’s
likely to be truly reflective of how many young people are really experiencing
persistent symptoms,” said Dr Liz Whittaker, senior clinical lecturer in
paediatric infectious diseases and immunology at Imperial College London.
“I’m
talking to paediatricians who are already getting referrals – the numbers
aren’t huge … I don’t think there’s a huge cause for concern,” she said, adding
that what parents are most frustrated by is that nobody knows much about it
because it’s a new condition.
“The good
news is that the majority of young people who get chronic fatigue tend to get
better with appropriate support.”
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