Children and adolescents diagnosed with COVID-19 are 30 per cent more likely to develop health issues a few months down the track.

This is the main finding of a new study, one of the first to look at the longer-term health impacts of a COVID-19 infection in young people.

Most discussion has focused on ‘long COVID’ presentations in adults.

Researchers from the Technische Universität Dresden found that kids who had apparently recovered from a COVID-19 infection went on to develop general malaise (feeling unwell), fatigue or exhaustion, a cough, throat and/or chest pains.

These symptoms, documented in medical records, were the most likely to emerge three months or more after seeming to recover from the acute phase of the disease.

However, rates of headaches, fevers, abdominal pains, anxiety disorders and depression were also increased in the post-COVID child and adolescent population.

The new study

The study used a healthcare dataset covering nearly half the German population and spanning all of 2019 and 2020.

The researchers identified patients with a PCR-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19.

They then compared the occurrence of 13 different conditions diagnosed at least three months post-infection in 11,950 children and adolescents and 145,184 adults.

These diagnoses were compared to those in a control cohort of more than 750,000 individuals with matched age, sex and pre-existing medical conditions, but without PCR-confirmed COVID-19.

Adults with COVID-19 were 33 per cent more likely than controls to have subsequent health problems.

These were mainly smell/taste disturbances, fevers, and difficulty breathing.

Also common were coughs, throat and chest pains, hair loss, fatigue, exhaustion and headaches.

“The results of the present study indicate that post-COVID-19 syndrome cannot be dismissed among children and adolescents,” the authors say.

The authors described these illnesses as instances of ‘post-COVID syndrome’, which is sometimes also called ‘long COVID’.

On the face of it, though, these may or may not be the same thing. ‘Long COVID’ is regarded as an ongoing presentation of COVID-19 symptoms.

‘Post COVID syndrome’ might be the tendency for people who have recovered from the infection to become more prone to illness, suggesting an ongoing compromise to their immune system.

The New Daily wrote to the authors asking for clarity.  We will update this story if we receive a reply.