One in seven children aged 11 to 17 in England who have had Covid-19 suffer from persistent symptoms, a government-backed study has found.
The CLoCk study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation, compared survey data from about 3,000 people aged 11 to 17 who tested positive for Covid-19 in England between January and March this year and 3,700 children who tested negative.
The study’s findings suggest that long Covid was the likely cause of one in seven children who had tested positive experiencing three or more symptoms 15 weeks after infection. One in 14 children reported five or more symptoms.
The data suggest that over seven months between September 2020 and March 2021 at least 4,000 and possibly 32,000 teenagers in England may have had multiple symptoms tied to Covid-19 infection after 15 weeks.
Females, older teens and those with worse pre-test physical and mental health were more likely to experience long Covid, the study said.
Physical symptoms included unusual tiredness, shortness of breath, headaches and loss of taste or smell. ..
there will be young people — even though the numbers aren’t huge — [who] are very severely affected,” said Stephenson [Sir Terence Stephenson, Nuffield professor of child health at University College London]. “There will be some young people who are completely bed-ridden or remain very short of breath or have daily headaches.”
www.ft.com/content/31c30156-e446-469a-86d6-a1b93ccf91a0