After overcoming the infection by Coronavirus Sars-COV-2 some people experience a series of symptoms that are known as persistent Covid, which interfere with their daily activities and for which a solution has not yet been found. Tiredness without just cause, headache, muscle or joint discomfort, persistent cough, breathing difficulties or problems concentrating, are just some of the more than 200 symptoms that have been associated with this post-covid-19 disorder.
Now, a series of recent studies that have carried out researchers at the Perelman Faculty of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania warn that the Persistent covid can increase the risk that children and young people develop various serious health problemswhich include renal, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases.
“While most public care has focused on the acute phase of the COVID-19, our findings reveal that children face significant long-term health risks that clinical professionals must monitor,” said the main author, Dr. Yong Chen, professor of the Department of Bioestadistics and Epidemiology, in a note published by the University.
These researchers conducted their in the framework of the Recover Initiative (Researching Covid to Enhance Recovery), a special project sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in which more than 20 Medical Center participating that gathered anonymous data of electronic clinical history from the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Kidney, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular problems associated with COVID
The young people who tested positive in the SARS-COV-2 test were 17% more likely to develop chronic renal disease in stage 2 or higher (indicating mild damage with still preserved function), and 35% more risk if it was stadium 3 or higher (when the damage begins to compromise renal function).
These results have been published in JAMA Network Open and are based on medical records of almost 1.9 million people under 21 years. The results of those who had tested in Sars-COV-2 with those of those who had no registered infection between 2020 and 2023 were compared.
Patients with previous chronic renal disease that contracted the virus had 15% more risk of renal complications, such as decrease in glomerular filtering, need for dialysis or transplantation, and it was also observed that those who suffered acute renal damage during the initial phase of the infection had 29% more risk of developing kidney problems between three and six months later.
Another of the studies that have also been published in JAMA Network Open He focused on digestive disorders such as abdominal pain, diarrhea or irritable bowel syndrome. The analysis included more than 1.5 million children and adolescents and the results showed that those who had tested positive in the Coronavirus test had 25% more likely to develop some symptoms or gastrointestinal condition in the posterior phase of the infection, and 28% more risk of presenting these symptoms chronic, from six months to two years later.
“Doctors should monitor pediatric patients to detect prolonged covid signs and symptoms and should be prepared to treat these conditions”
Regarding cardiovascular health, researchers detected that young people with SARS-COV-2 infection were more likely to develop disorders such as arrhythmias, heart inflammation, thoracic pain, palpitations or hypertension, compared to those who did not contract the virus. These risks increased both in children with congenital heart defects, and in those who did not present them.
Although minors with congenital heart defects already started from a higher risk, the relative increase after infection was similar: 63% more. The case of cardiac inflammation is especially highlighted in children without congenital heart defects, whose risk almost tripled after overcoming COVID-19. In this work, data of more than 1.2 million pediatric patients were analyzed and their findings have been published in Nature Communications.
The researchers also observed that the effects of the persistent Covid varied depending on the ethnic group. For example, Asian-American and island children of the Pacific (AAPI) had slightly higher rates of post-covid sequelae compared to non-Hispanic white children, regardless of the severity of the initial picture.
In addition, Hispanic patients showed greater risk of hair loss after having had a serious Covid picture, while non -Hispanic African -American patients had a slightly less risk of presenting dermatological symptoms related to persistent COVID.
These data come from the analysis of more than 225,000 clinical records of children and adolescents and are collected in the same article published in Nature Communications. “In general, these findings underline the fact that doctors should monitor pediatric patients to detect prolonged signs and symptoms and must be prepared to treat these conditions,” concluded Dr. Chen.
Source: www.webconsultas.com