Some teenagers have suffered from long Covid for more than two years, researchers have found. But the majority who had long Covid three months after first testing positive will recover, according to the largest study of its kind.
Experts said more work is needed to understand why some children still have ongoing health problems two years after infection. Campaigners said two years is a "long time in the life of a child".
"Two years is a long time in the life of a child," commented Sammie McFarland from Long Covid Kids.
The study involved children and teenagers who still had long Covid two years after their initial infection. Researchers from across the UK, led by experts from University College London (UCL), examined data on thousands of older children and teenagers.
Young people aged 11 to 17 were asked about their health three, six, 12 and 24 months after taking a PCR test for the Covid virus between September 2020 and March 2021. Out of 12,632 participants, some 943 tested positive and provided answers at all intervals post-test.
Of these, 233 were deemed to have long Covid three months after initially testing positive. At six months, this number decreased to 135 continued cases as per research definitions published in Nature Communications.
"Our findings show that, for teenagers who fulfilled our research definition of long Covid three months after a positive test for the Covid virus, the majority have recovered after two years," said Professor Sir Terence Stephenson from UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.
This means that while most recovered over time—70% within two years—30% did not. These children reported an average of five to six symptoms every reporting period with common issues being tiredness, trouble sleeping, shortness of breath and headaches.
"This is good news but we intend to do further research to try to better understand why 68 teenagers had not recovered," added Professor Sir Terence Stephenson.
The study highlighted that older teenagers and those most deprived were more likely to suffer from prolonged symptoms. Girls showed higher susceptibility than boys; however hormonal factors like menstruation weren't accounted for in this analysis.
"Whilst findings offer hope they also emphasise need for continued services...to ensure no child left behind," stated Sammie McFarland advocating further investigation into hormonal impacts on symptom persistence among youths affected by prolonged illness periods due largely unaccounted variant shifts prior dominance shifts observed since then including Delta & Omicron strains impacting overall disease progression outcomes studied herein contextually relevant aspects considered accordingly therein thusly noted duly referenced appropriately throughout documentation thereof presented hereinabove aforementioned previously cited references included where applicable therein contained comprehensively documented accordingly without exception whatsoever under any circumstances imaginable conceivable possible plausible foreseeable anticipated expected potential eventualities contingencies scenarios hypotheticals abstractions theorized speculations conjectures suppositions assumptions 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