Between 5 and 10% of children have Covid symptoms months later: "My daughter forgot how to tie the laces"

Maria infected a little over a year ago, on the New Year's Eve of 2020, although he did not know until later because the infection passed as a gastrointeritis.The surprise came when as other symptoms were recovering, extreme tiredness, drowning, joint pain, tachycardia and lack of concentration or memory.At the end of January I was lying on the bed without being able to do anything.

The first weeks were shock.His mother, Monica, remembers the hard of those days: “Until March or with the tests we could not confirm that it was Covid through immunity tests.My daughter saw her paralyzed life with all kinds of invalidating symptoms, he forgot even how to tie the shoes cords. ”.

Maria gathered many of the characteristic symptoms of persistent covid, a disease that not only affects adults.That of the Germans Trias and Pujol University Hospital (Can Ruti, in Barcelona) is the first pediatric covid unit of Spain and estimates that cases in children range between 5 and 10% of those infected.That supposes, according to the data of the latest Health Epidemiological Report, that the number of children who can suffer some type of persistent covid in Spain ranges from 75.000 and 150.000.

Other studies give figures that reach 14% in the United Kingdom and as the Pediatric Epidemiologist Enrique Bassat explained to El Independiente, the average is in 5% but the prevalence ranges from different studies between 2 and 14%.Almost all studies estimate that the percentage is higher in adolescents than in children and some, which is somewhat more frequent in the female sex.

The president of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Infectology, Cristina Calvo Rey, speaks of a study even without publishing that they have carried out in three hospitals in Madrid (Niño Jesús, La Paz and Severo Ochoa) in which the figures that are being seen "arehigh and get closer to the high range.However, the symptoms are very nonspecific and have been seen equally in children surveyed in the same period and treated in the same hospitals for other reasons.It is therefore probable that in part, the symptoms are due to other causes such as the general situation during pandemic and confinement ».

They are estimated figures both due to the lack of diagnoses and confusing symptomatology."There is a lot of infradiagnosis, because among children the lack of symptoms in infection is very frequent and then there is as much variability as in adults, where more than 200 symptoms have been described," explains Pilar Rodríguez Ledo, spokesman for the Spanish society ofGeneral and Family Medicine (SEMG) and researcher in Persistent Covid.“In them, fatigue, the deficit of attention and processing speed, the lack of appetite that derives in weight loss or hair falls is common.In general, when they see in them a change in attitude and behavior.That they stop being able to carry out their activities, relate to their friends and make the life they made before ”.

The president of the SEIP considers the most frequent "tiredness, muscle aches, headache, difficulty concentrating, sadness, in some cases dizziness, anosmia and ageusia".

Some of those symptoms are separately, as in the case of Eloy, who resides in Zamora with his mother and infected Covid for an outbreak in his institute in October 2020.The infection passed as a cold and forgot the virus until six months later.In May of last year, he and his mother saw how bald was trained in the crown.In the doctor they told him that it was stress but his mother, suffering from persistent covid, did not convince him.A dermatologist confirmed that they had seen many more cases like that and finally the analytics showed the decompensation of vitamin D or iron that is also associated with the Long Covid.“My son has only this symptom but it is hard, for a 15 -year -old kid, his hair drops.Calvas are leaving and the other day we realized that half an eyebrow had fallen ”.

The search for medical care

In the case of Mary, the symptoms did not refer at any time after infection.The pain, tiredness and the problems of concentration and memory were the main ones but there were many others.With each one they were consulting in primary care but the answer was, in Mónica's judgment, very poor.«They sent us soothing for the symptoms and they came to refer us to psychiatry, when this is not a psychiatric disease.Public health has not given me anything.Practically all the attention that my daughter has received I have had to look for her on my own.And pay it ».

This Aragonese mother read everything she could and tried to take her daughter to the pediatric unit of Can Ruti: «They could not attend her because they were totally saturated and what I did was find out what they did there with the children to do it privately to my daughter".

Monica learned that for neurocognitive rehabilitation they referred children to the Guttmann Institute of Neurorehabilitation.«We paid a two -month -old telematic therapy and the girl improved a lot.It is not 100%, but managed to recover a lot ».

Maria's mother also did not get her daughter's arrhythmia in depth and opted for a private cardiologist.He has also paid pocket sessions of physiotherapy, respiratory therapy and intermittent hypoxia.In the absence of a treatment for his daughter, he affirms that he cannot stop trying what they offer him.«As a mother I have to grab what there is.That my daughter see that we do not give up, ”he says strongly.Maria has also recently entered a clinical trial of the University Health Institute of Aragon in which they will follow their case through analytics and other tests and tests to measure their health status.The goal is to find out the causes after this pathology.

Not all cases have the same gravity and Calvo Rey believes that “it is rare that specialized attention is necessary, but there are cases in which it does happen and there are more units of monitoring of these paintings.Multidisciplinary attention may be necessary ».

Attention problems derive from the lack of recognition of the disease.«In Spain there is no clinical record to date and until October 2021 there was not even a definition of the disease.The World Health Organization published one by consensus, which means that not everyone sees it the same.With these bases it is very complicated, you have to investigate to be able to know and recognize this disease better, ”explains Rodríguez Ledo.

The SEMG is one of the societies that has worked most in persistent COVID in Spain, such as the elaboration of a clinical guide for the care of patients with Long Covid or Covid Persistent."In treatments we have advanced something in comprehensive care, specific questionnaires or the approach to cognitive symptoms, but much remains to move forward and what is needed is to investigate".

For the investigation, Maria's mother also cries out, which one year after the infection continues with much of the symptoms.«In July 2021, when the first dose of the vaccine became, we improved a lot and we thought it was recovering.But shortly after the second dose at the end of August, I don't know if by chance or not, all symptoms returned.He could go to class a week, ”says his mother.

Monica also fights because from the educational system they understand and offer these alternative children not to lose their education.«My daughter has not been able to go to class this year and although we have had some support, in many cases it has been based on asking for it at school.We need the educational system to serve these children, who are many and feel totally neglected ».

Calvo Rey believes that part of the challenge of this disease is the “complex of really recognizing when we are facing a true persistent covid and the main challenge for me is that it is a diagnosis of exclusion and it is necessary to ensure that we are not facing another disease.The next challenge is to make a multidisciplinary and no less important approach, the need in many cases of psychological support that today is a huge problem, because the mental health of children and adolescents has been very affected with the pandemic and there is a shortage ofhuman and material resources to deal with this need ».