16-year-old Ella Horvath was a healthy teen full of energy. But a month after a family trip last year, she started feeling tired all the time. And then got dizzy spells.
An antibody test showed, she'd had COVID. Horvath had never shown COVID symptoms, and no one in her family had been sick. Ella's mother Mary Ann Cappiello contacted Boston Children's Hospital Pediatric Post-COVID Clinic to describe her daughter's symptoms and said she "cried with relief" when they told her to come in because she was so happy to find doctors who might be able to help her daughter.
Her doctor, pediatric infectious disease specialist Alicia Johnston, says she sees a wide range of symptoms in her patients — everything from brain fog, insomnia and headaches to heart palpitations, muscle aches and chest pain. She's seen some patients like Ella for over a year.
While there's no agreed definition of what long COVID is, and the list of symptoms is long, doctors say symptoms are often seen in pairs. Johnston also says there's no way yet to predict which children are at risk for long COVID so the risks of COVID to children shouldn't be dismissed. “The severity of your initial COVID symptoms does not predict whether or not you will be the person to go on to develop long COVID. We don't have a good understanding at all about the risk factors for long covid in children and adolescents,” Johnston said.
There are clinics like Boston Children's springing up around the country and researchers are scrambling to understand the problem both in adults and children. Congress has set aside over a billion dollars for multi-year research into the problem and NIH director Dr. Francis Collins recently called the problem "daunting" — given it likely affects millions. Dr. Adrienne Randolph, also at Boston Children's Hospital, is leading a nationwide research study into the severe effects of COVID on children. She warns that since little is understood about the problem, prevention is the only option for now. That means adults and children using masks, and COVID vaccines for all — including children for whatever ages they're approved.
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