Post COVID-19 conditions in an Australian pediatric cohort, 3 months following a Delta outbreak

• Published in: Pediatric research 2024-08
• Main Authors: Britton, Philip N, Burrell, Rebecca, Chapman, Emily, Boyle, Julia, Alexander, Shirley, Belessis, Yvonne, Dalby-Payne, Jacqueline, Knight, Katherine, Lau, Christine, McMullan, Brendan, Milne, Bronwyn, Paull, Marilyn, Nguyen, Jonathan, Selvadurai, Hiran, Dale, Russell, Baillie, Andrew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0031-3998; 1530-0447; 1530-0447
• DOI: 10.1038/s41390-024-03492-x

Pediatric long COVID remains incompletely understood with scant Australian data available. We aimed to assess the impacts of the 2021 Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak on symptoms and functioning 12 weeks post-acute infection in a cohort of children and adolescents. The parents/carers of 11,864 patients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 were invited, via email or text message, to complete an online survey assessing symptoms and functional impairment. 1731 (17.6%) responded to the survey. 203 (11.7%) reported continued symptoms and/or functional impairment which were flagged for clinical review, all others reported recovery. Of the 169 subsequently clinically reviewed, 63 had already recovered (37.3%) and 17 had exacerbation of pre-existing condition(s) (10.1%); 63 (37.3%) were diagnosed with a Post COVID Condition (PCC). Of these, 21 (12.4%) were considered to have features compatible with the United Kingdom consensus cases definition for Long COVID. During an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 an online questionnaire with subsequent clinical review revealed self-reported non-recovery at 12 weeks in a minority of cases, with a spectrum of features. Long COVID comprised only a subset of cases with self-reported non-recovery, and is infrequent in children and adolescents, but still comprises a likely significant burden that warrants attention. Our study provides the only comprehensive estimate of the frequency and spectrum of post-COVID conditions in children from Australia. The high frequency of self-reported recovery, and low frequency of Long COVID compatible illness adds to the literature from other settings. Risk factors for post-COVID conditions in children are identified and include: age >11 year, and previous medical co-morbidity.