From the Faculty of Science and Medicine, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Department of Paediatrics, Fribourg Hospital HFR, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2021 Dec 1;40(12):e482-e487. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000003328.
In children, the risk of coronavirus disease (COVID) being severe is low. However, the risk of persistent symptoms following infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is uncertain in this age group, and the features of "long COVID" are poorly characterized. We reviewed the 14 studies to date that have reported persistent symptoms following COVID in children and adolescents. Almost all the studies have major limitations, including the lack of a clear case definition, variable follow-up times, inclusion of children without confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, reliance on self- or parent-reported symptoms without clinical assessment, nonresponse and other biases, and the absence of a control group. Of the 5 studies which included children and adolescents without SARS-CoV-2 infection as controls, 2 did not find persistent symptoms to be more prevalent in children and adolescents with evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This highlights that long-term SARS-CoV-2 infection-associated symptoms are difficult to distinguish from pandemic-associated symptoms.
在儿童中，患冠状病毒病（COVID）的风险较低。然而，在该年龄组中，严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）感染后持续症状的风险尚不确定，“长 COVID”的特征也描述不足。我们回顾了迄今为止报告儿童和青少年 COVID 后持续症状的 14 项研究。几乎所有的研究都存在主要的局限性，包括缺乏明确的病例定义、随访时间不同、包括未经 SARS-CoV-2 感染确认的儿童、依赖自我或父母报告的症状而没有临床评估、无应答和其他偏倚，以及没有对照组。在纳入作为对照的无 SARS-CoV-2 感染儿童和青少年的 5 项研究中，有 2 项研究并未发现有 SARS-CoV-2 感染证据的儿童和青少年持续症状更为常见。这突出表明，长期 SARS-CoV-2 感染相关症状很难与大流行相关症状区分开来。
