Page 5 - BOL Sept 21 Edition

prompted testing for COVID-19. This is both a strength (their A network of specialist “long COVID” advisory services for
symptoms coincided with the time they were tested) and a children and young people is being set up across England,
weakness (we didn’t capture children who were asymptomatic bringing together expert clinical teams including paediatricians,
or with symptoms too mild to prompt testing, or who didn’t psychiatrists, physiotherapists, psychologists, speech and
have access to testing). language therapists, nurses and occupational therapists. One
question our research raises is whether these new services
Also, our study participants, while numerous, don’t fully represent should be only for children with confirmed COVID-19 or if
the wider UK population by ethnicity and socioeconomic status. they should extend to all children with long-lasting symptoms
Other studies underway will be able to help address some of after illness, who otherwise might not have access to the same
these limitations. support.

What do these findings mean? Secondly, there’s vaccination. We hope our study contributes to
Our results have implications for several areas of public health understanding around how children are affected by COVID-19
policy. Even a small percentage of children with COVID-19 and how many might suffer long-lasting symptoms – to help
developing long-lasting symptoms still represents a large inform current debate around vaccination in young people.
absolute number of children. We therefore should consider
what paediatric and primary-care services might be needed and Finally, our findings should be broadly reassuring as children
the types of support children with lasting illness might need at return to more “normal” in-person schooling in the UK. Our data
home and at school. show that for most children, COVID-19 is a short-lived illness.

Written by: Robert C Hughes, Clinical Research Fellow,
Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene
& Tropical Medicine; Emma Duncan, Professor of Clinical
Endocrinology, King’s College London., King’s College London;
Michael Absoud, Honorary Reader at the Department of Women
and Children’s Health, King’s College London; Sunil Bhopal,
Academic Clinical Lecturer in Paediatrics, Newcastle University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative
Commons license. Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/

September 2021 www.bestoflocal.com.au 5