Long COVID in Children and Young after Infection or Reinfection with the Omicron Variant: A Prospective Observational Study

Snehal M Pinto Pereira; Anna Mensah; Manjula D Nugawela; Terence Stephenson; Shamez N Ladhani; Emma Dalrymple; Jake Dudley; Kelsey McOwat; Ruth Simmons; Isobel Heyman; Terry Segal; Malcolm G Semple; Laila Xu; CLoCk Consortium; Roz Shafran

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113463

Long COVID in Children and Young after Infection or Reinfection with the Omicron Variant: A Prospective Observational Study

J Pediatr. 2023 Aug:259:113463. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113463. Epub 2023 May 11.

Collaborators

CLoCk Consortium:
Marta Buszewicz, Trudie Chalder, Esther Crawley, Bianca De Stavola, Tamsin Ford, Shruti Garg, Anthony Harnden, Dougal Hargreaves, Michael Levin, Vanessa Poustie, Calum Semple, Kishan Sharma, Olivia Swann, Elizabeth Whittaker

Affiliations

¹ Division of Surgery & Interventional Science, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University College London, London, UK. Electronic address: snehal.pereira@ucl.ac.uk.
² Immunisations and Vaccine Preventable Diseases, UK Health Security Agency, London, UK.
³ UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK.
⁴ Immunisations and Vaccine Preventable Diseases, UK Health Security Agency, London, UK; Paediatric Infectious Diseases Research Group, St. George's University of London, London, UK.
⁵ University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
⁶ NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; Respiratory Medicine, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool, UK.

Abstract

To describe the prevalence of long COVID in children infected for the first time (n = 332) or reinfected (n = 243) with Omicron compared with test-negative children (n = 311). Overall, 12%-16% of those infected with Omicron met the research definition of long COVID at 3 and 6 months after infection, with no evidence of difference between cases of first positive and reinfected (P_χ2 = 0.17).

Keywords: long COVID; omicron; post COVID-19 condition; prospective; young people.

Publication types

Observational Study
Case Reports
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Child
Humans
Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome*
Reinfection
SARS-CoV-2

Supplementary concepts

SARS-CoV-2 variants

Long COVID in Children and Young after Infection or Reinfection with the Omicron Variant: A Prospective Observational Study

Authors

Collaborators

Affiliations

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Supplementary concepts

Grants and funding