Persistent symptoms after COVID-19 in children and adolescents from Argentina

Objectives: Although long COVID-19 is widely recognized in adults, less information is available about this condition in children, especially in developing countries. Here, we studied the long-term symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection beyond 3 months and the associated risk factors in a pediatric population.Methods: This observational study included 639 Argentinian children and adolescents with previously confirmed COVID-19 from June 2020-June 2021 and 577 children without previous COVID-19. Parents completed a survey about symptoms that their child had for > 3 months after the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Results: At least one persistent symptom was observed more frequently in children with previous COVID-19 than in the non-COVID-19 group (34% vs 13%, P < 0.0 0 01). SARS-CoV-2 infection increased the risk of headache, dizziness, loss of taste, dyspnea, cough, fatigue, muscle pain, and loss of weight by three-to seven-fold. The loss of smell was only reported in infected children. After controlling for the other variables, older age, symptomatic COVID-19, and comorbidities were independent predictors of long-term symptoms.Conclusions: One-third of children experienced persistent symptoms after COVID-19. Older age, symp-tomatic infection, and comorbidities were shown to be risk factors for long COVID-19. Pediatric long COVID-19 is a new condition that requires further investigation.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

Automated summary

This study investigated the long-term symptoms of COVID-19 in Argentinian children and found that one-third of children experienced persistent symptoms. Older age, symptomatic infection, and comorbidities were identified as risk factors for long COVID-19.