SARS-CoV-2 reinfection can spike long Covid risk in kids: The Lancet
New Delhi: A reinfection with the SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind Covid-19 disease, doubled the risk of developing long Covid among children, according to a large study published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The findings involving over 460,000 children and adolescents across 40 paediatric hospitals in the US found that after the first Covid infection, about 904 children per million developed long Covid within six months.
Following a reinfection, this number more than doubled to approximately 1,884 children per million.
The kids were more likely to suffer from a wide range of rare but persistent and sometimes serious conditions, including heart inflammation (myocarditis), blood clots, kidney injury, cognitive difficulties, fatigue, and respiratory problems.
“These findings add to previous evidence linking paediatric long Covid to multisystem effects and highlight the need to promote vaccination in younger populations and support ongoing research to better understand post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (long Covid), identify high-risk subgroups, and improve prevention and care strategies,” said researchers from the universities of Pennsylvania, Iowa, and California.
“The growing frequency of SARS-CoV-2 reinfections in the omicron era underscores the need to understand their long-term consequences. Our findings indicate that PASC risk persists after reinfection in children and adolescents, although the magnitude might vary by previous infection history, severity, and vaccination status. These results suggest that reinfections might contribute to cumulative morbidity,” they added.
The study analysed electronic health records from January 2022 through October 2023, a period dominated by the highly transmissible omicron variant. Researchers compared health outcomes following children’s first and second documented Covid infections to isolate the risks associated with reinfection.
The team emphasised that while vaccines and other prevention measures may not completely eliminate the risk of contracting Covid, they remain the most effective way to prevent both initial infections and reinfections, thereby reducing the risk of long-lasting symptoms in children.
They stated that the study’s findings reinforce the need to strengthen public health efforts to increase Covid vaccination coverage among children and adolescents.