BALTIMORE — New research suggests COVID-19 took more of a toll on children than initially thought.
Frontiers in Pediatrics recently surveyed 79 parents of children who were hospitalized with COVID-19 between January 2020 and July 2021.
The study was conducted at a dozen different medical centers throughout the country.
It revealed 30 percent of children never fully recovered from the virus or its aftereffects.
One post-Covid medical condition creating a major impact on these children is what's known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C).
The study found 87 percent also had ongoing neurological symptoms including headaches and weakness.
A large portion of the children (40 percent) returned to the emergency room following a bout with COVID, with 24 percent ultimately having to be readmitted.
The research indicates symptoms stuck around between one and two years. No vaccine was available for the children studied at the time of their initial hospitalization.
Dr. Beth Slomine, co-director of the Brain Injury Clinical Research Center at Kennedy Krieger in Baltimore, was one of the authors of the study.
“The numbers are striking and speak volumes,” Slomine said. “Our findings highlight the urgent need for better monitoring systems and care strategies to address the long-term effects that the pandemic made on pediatric health.”
