Long covid rare in children

[Bobholll]

Contrary to mumsnet, where long covid is RIFE in children & everyone knows at least 5 who can’t get out of bed, a new study is showing that it’s thankfully rare & most children recover in a week.

The professor also mentions that most those with on-going symptoms recovered over time.

Nice to see they are keeping an eye statistically on this stuff & that it’s very reassuring.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58071898

Well "syndromes" are in a way by definition not defined well, more of a random collection of symptoms lumped together that are being studied. Frustrating of course for the poor patients - and also for the doctors.

Long Covid doesn't particularly ring alarm bells for me. At school a good friend had glandular fever and was unwell with what we'd call 'long Covid'

Post viral fatigue is probably as common. There was always at least one teen at school getting the shirt straw with glandular fever symptoms or even mumps!

I don't think the effect of long Covid is any worse (dare I say different) in effect or numbers than other teen illnesses

I thought T1 diabetes was genetic?

There are clear cases where genetics had played a part - no doubt it runs in some families.

But tha majority of cases are just stand alone.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000ycx6

Long interview with the Great Ormond Street medic leading a child long Covid study.

They point out that it may be like glandular fever but the rates of that are nowhere near the current rates of teen Covid infection.

there's a very interesting twitter thread on the limitations of this study, by Deepti Gurdasani.

twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1422800835562647554

1/50 isn’t rare.

In a big secondary with, I dunno 10 classes per year group- 300 ( to make the maths easy ) if they all got it - which if not immune they will eventually - that’s 6 kids per year group with symptoms d over 8 weeks and 15 more taking 2 weeks to recover

And in the meantime? Whilst working towards exams? It’s OK for children to routinely feel unwell over a matter of weeks, may be months?

But post-viral fatigue/symptoms isn’t a new phenomenon. I had severe glandular fever at 11 (along with scarlet fever), which knocked me out for the best part of a year. Missed a lot of school, couldn’t exercise properly for months, affected my 11+ result, which ended up going to appeal. At the time it was just seen as bad luck and something our family had to deal with.

The only ‘new’ part is that Covid is happening on a national scale, so people are on high alert and paying attention to these things en masse.

I do believe long Covid exists in kids, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near as as prevalent as is often implied on MN, I think there’s a much wider phenomenon of post-lockdown youth MH issues manifesting as physical symptoms, and also that there’s an awful lot of hyperbole and catastrophising going on it some quarters.

Long Covid isn't necessarily the issue, long term conditions caused by Covid is the issue - at least it has been for me - daughter caught Covid at 14 months old, she now has a long term blood condition as it has completely destroyed her blood count and we are now having to isolate her not from Covid but from anything because she is so ill.

Doctors have tried to suggest its long Covid mind you.

A lot of people I know with children who have had it have bounced back quite quickly

BBC getting going early on its propaganda, ready for the new term.

Schools are safe
Schools are safe
Schools are safe
4 legs good, 2 legs baaaaaad...

It's odd that this figure is being presented as reassuring in a population where everyone gets it-those numbers will be high. It does smack of propaganda.

2% doesn't strike me as rare. That would be several children in every school.

If someone told me that 1 in 50 children could be ill for months after covid I'd be wanting my child vaccinated asap. Several childhood illnesses are less risky than that and we vaccinate.

In Jan 2019 Norovirus ran rife through DS's school. We all caught it and while DH, DD and I were all over it in a few days DS was ill for weeks, it took 2 weeks for the vomiting to stop then another 3/4 for him to look and feel fine again. The doctor said it was just 'post viral illness'.

These things are rare and are not just exclusive to covid. Kids can be ill for weeks with all kinds of things.

Very misleading headline. 1 in 50 isn’t rare. They are opening quite a number of Long Covid clinics for children which they wouldn’t do unless there were enough of them significantly affected to justify it.
Really hope 12-15s are offered the jab ASAP.

I had gf at 20. I caught everything for a year and lost about a stone.
Im not sure ive ever had as much energy as before gf but not me/cfs.
Anyway had covid i think apr 20. The issue complete different not cough or tiredness. But short of breath and couldnt read aloud or shout. Chest pain and upper back.
Then had pins and needles in hands mainly but do seem to have it elsewhere and around 12m of muscle twitches which stopped sleep. So symptoms ongoing (pins and needles) and other symptoms taking 6-12m to go.
As bad as fatigue is, this is worse as symptoms similar to ms and the brain fog feels like you have altzheimers.
The loss of smell/taste also happens with parkinsons. We dont know the long term effects.
T1 diabetes is obviously potentially fatal. And obviously life changing.

It is 2% of children with Covid symptoms, not 2% of all children, according to that report. That’s presumably where the word rare comes in.

@Sodisgusting

It's odd that this figure is being presented as reassuring in a population where everyone gets it-those numbers will be high. It does smack of propaganda.

I guess they expect most people to just see the title and think it's great, and post it somewhere else without reading context. Otherwise the OP's opening post doesn't make any sense. There's nothing reassuring about it when it may affect many children if the school go back without any safety measures in place.

@porseb, that is a very selective list that doesn't come close to covering all CEV and CV children and families. Even for families like ours, which are theoretically covered, it is proving very difficult to get vaccinated.

Oh god. I need to leave mumsnet. You all shake in fear & worry about propaganda & schools being terribly unsafe 🥴 meanwhile, the in the real world, everyone I know is getting back to normal & praying schools run as normal next year. I was merely posting a positive study.

You guys all enjoy your fear 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

Is be interested to know how the statistics compare to other childhood illness.

What % suffer glandular fever (a year say). What % get post viral flu symptoms for same period.

And what level of illness so that 1/20 have for the 4 weeks.
Same for the 1/50 for 8 weeks.

1/50 suffering illness possibly enough to miss a half terms education is equivalent to 4-5 pupils per year group in an average secondary school.

That seems a lot to me as I've never experienced that many children out for that period of time before.

And I agree 1 in 20 isn't rare!

My son suffers what's called a rare neurological disorder.

It affects approx 1 in 77,000

@Bobholll

Oh god. I need to leave mumsnet. You all shake in fear & worry about propaganda & schools being terribly unsafe 🥴 meanwhile, the in the real world, everyone I know is getting back to normal & praying schools run as normal next year. I was merely posting a positive study.

You guys all enjoy your fear 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

Ahhhh

You're one of those 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

So it’s 2% of children who developed symptoms.
Not all children who got Covid.

@HelloMissus

So it’s 2% of children who developed symptoms. Not all children who got Covid.

Indeed but why let facts get in the way of another opportunity to panic 😒

@Bobholll

Oh god. I need to leave mumsnet. You all shake in fear & worry about propaganda & schools being terribly unsafe 🥴 meanwhile, the in the real world, everyone I know is getting back to normal & praying schools run as normal next year. I was merely posting a positive study.

You guys all enjoy your fear 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

You understandably reposted an inaccurate headline, no biggy.