https://publications.aap.org/pediat.../Postacute-Sequelae-of-SARS-CoV-2-in-Children STATE-OF-THE-ART REVIEW| FEBRUARY 07 2024 Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 in Children Suchitra Rao, MBBS, MSCS; Rachel S. Gross, MD, MS; Sindhu Mohandas, MD; Cheryl R. Stein, PhD; Abigail Case, MD; Benard Dreyer, MD; Nathan M. Pajor, MD; H. Timothy Bunnell, PhD; David Warburton, MD; Elizabeth Berg, MD; Jonathan B. Overdevest, MD; Mark Gorelik, MD; Joshua Milner, MD; Sejal Saxena, BA; Ravi Jhaveri, MD; John C. Wood, MD, PhD; Kyung E. Rhee, MD, MSc, MA; Rebecca Letts, BA; Christine Maughan, BS; Nick Guthe, BA; Leah Castro-Baucom, MA; Melissa S. Stockwell, MD, MPH suchitra.rao@childrenscolorado.org FUNDING: Funded by the National Institutes of Health Agreement OTA OT2HL161847-01 as part of the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery program of research. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the National Institutes of Health. CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES: Dr Rao reports previous grant support from GSK and Biofire, and was a former consultant for Sequiris. Dr Jhaveri is a consultant for AstraZeneca, Seqirus, and Dynavax, and receives an editorial stipend from Elsevier. All other authors have indicated they have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose. Pediatrics e2023062570. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2023-062570 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused significant medical, social, and economic impacts globally, both in the short and long term. Although most individuals recover within a few days or weeks from an acute infection, some experience longer lasting effects. Data regarding the postacute sequelae of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection (PASC) in children, or long COVID, are only just emerging in the literature. These symptoms and conditions may reflect persistent symptoms from acute infection (eg, cough, headaches, fatigue, and loss of taste and smell), new symptoms like dizziness, or exacerbation of underlying conditions. Children may develop conditions de novo, including postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune conditions and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. This state-of-the-art narrative review provides a summary of our current knowledge about PASC in children, including prevalence, epidemiology, risk factors, clinical characteristics, underlying mechanisms, and functional outcomes, as well as a conceptual framework for PASC based on the current National Institutes of Health definition. We highlight the pediatric components of the National Institutes of Health-funded Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery Initiative, which seeks to characterize the natural history, mechanisms, and long-term health effects of PASC in children and young adults to inform future treatment and prevention efforts. These initiatives include electronic health record cohorts, which offer rapid assessments at scale with geographical and demographic diversity, as well as longitudinal prospective observational cohorts, to estimate disease burden, illness trajectory, pathobiology, and clinical manifestations and outcomes. Topics: covid-19, post-acute covid-19 syndrome, sars-cov-2, pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome
The article discusses the differences between Long COVID definitions and the resulting lack of clarity because of the varied definitions but at the end, under future directions and RECOVER says nothing about ensuring that there is an accurate definition of Long COVID for the pediatric (or any other) population. They also say that young people/children who have fatigue of more than 6 months that significantly impacts their level of function and PEM meet the official criteria for ME. They do not mention unrefreshing sleep, cognitive impairment and/or orthostatic intolerance as being needed for diagnosing ME. (These are among other "quibbles" I have with the article. I will stop for now for sanity's sake.)
Press release: "Children’s Hospital Los Angeles RECOVER Study collaborators publish comprehensive report on #longCOVID symptoms in children: RECOVER study report could aid doctors in diagnosing pediatric long #COVID symptoms" https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1034084
