Indiana fell ill with a cough in early March, said her mother, Jane Evans. Although she had no other symptoms of coronavirus, her parents kept her at home for two weeks in accordance with government guidelines.
She was never sick enough to be hospitalized, her mother told CNN. Nevertheless, the teenager – who plans to audition for prestigious dance schools – can now barely manage a trip to the supermarket.
Like many others who became ill during the early weeks of the pandemic in the United Kingdom, Indiana was never tested for the coronavirus. But her mother said doctors diagnosed her with post-viral post-covid fatigue.
She is one of a number of children who suffered from symptoms of the coronavirus months after first becoming ill, according to accounts of her parents.
Although Covid-19 symptoms are generally milder in children than in adults, with a much lower chance of needing hospitalization, the virus can still pose a risk to children’s health – a point emphasized by Drs. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). A few have even died.
‘There is so much unknown’
“Covid in children really falls into two categories – the primary infection with the virus seems to be a largely benign event in children, except for a few small numbers where there is a pre-existing condition,” said Athimalaipet Ramanan, honorary Professor of Pediatric Rheumatology at the University of Bristol in England.
“But what is a problem in a small minority of children is hyper-inflammatory syndrome, where they are quite uncomfortable and are allowed.”
Ramanan said he had not yet seen cases of children with seemingly longer-lasting mild Covid symptoms. “They’re probably starting to stumble through the primary care system,” he said. “I think we will know more about this in the coming months.”
One challenge is that it is not yet clear how attributed such symptoms are to the coronavirus, he said. Another is that since children were very mildly affected, they were not a priority for testing. “We will have to work to check if these are incidental findings from the coronavirus era or if these are related to the coronavirus,” he said.
Indiana initially looked better after a week – but 10 days later she began to become exhausted, her mother said. Initially, the teenager tried to keep up with schoolwork and dance practice online, but her symptoms began to worsen after they did exercises anyway.
The following days, Indiana began to suffer from migraines and flashing lights. “Her face all swelled up, her eyes swelled up. She got a rash all over her whole body,” Evans said. She contacted the doctor after Indiana began getting chest pain and palpitations, but was told her daughter just needed to rest, she said.
Eventually, Indiana was removed for hospital tests to rule out other problems, Evans said. “All the results came back absolutely fine, nothing marked in x-rays like blood tests, even though she got a really tight breast,” her mother said.
She will soon begin one-on-one rehabilitation classes to strengthen breathing and muscles.
Evans remains unsure of what lies ahead for her once “extremely active, very healthy” daughter, who will attend a new school in September.
“In our experience, it looks like an evolution. The virus evolves in the body from one thing to another. You’s okay and then something else happens,” Evans said. “There’s so much unknown. We don’t know how long this will last, we don’t know what will happen when she starts practicing again.”
Evans, like other parents who believe their children are suffering from coronavirus effects, is also concerned dat Indiana could be denied health care support because it did not pass a positive test.
“We just have to take it every day at the same time,” Evans said. “I think the hardest thing for her is not to know what’s going to happen in the future. She’s not able to dance, she’s very aware of it – and it was a very big part of her life before. “
‘A roller coaster for the whole family’
Birgit, from East Sussex in the south-east of England, said her former active seven-year-old son was still tired, had lost weight and could not walk far without being noticeably out of breath, four months after contracting suspected Covid-19. She and some other individuals in this article asked only to identify in part out of privacy concerns.
Birgit said she, her husband and their son became ill in mid-March and are still recovering. “It’s been a rollercoaster for the whole family,” Birgit said.
Her son’s symptoms began with a fever, diarrhea and conjunctivitis, she said. “He had spotty skin and became very unfocused. In the next few weeks, he had a real loss of appetite – which he still has – quite screaming, and he’s usually a very happy, active boy.”
His symptoms, which were intermittent, also included fatigue and difficulty, she said. “I am also very concerned about his emotional well-being, especially with us that we have been ill for so long and have relapsed.”
At one point, she said, things got so bad that she and her husband drafted a legal document regarding caring for their son when they were both in the hospital or less. “That plan assured him, but it’s a difficult conversation to have with a seven-year-old,” she said.
Birgit said she did not receive as much support from her family doctor as the National Health Service’s 111 advisory service. No one in the family was tested, although doctors told her they believed she had Covid-19 and the letter signing her from work probably says Covid-19, she said.
“It’s the uncertainty – I wonder where this is going and for my little boy, what this will mean for him with sports,” she said. “I do not want to be stupid, at least he’s alone is breathing, but I do not know what that means in advance. Should we check his lungs? There is so little guidance.”
Charlotte, from Buckinghamshire, southern England, also finds that her son is suffering from Covid-19, although he now appears to have fully recovered.
Ten-year-old Freddie fell ill in March and was given an inhaler and steroids after experiencing a cough so bad that he had difficulty breathing, she said. He recovered in about a week, but then had a rash, followed by diarrhea that lasted several weeks.
Charlotte had a negative antibody test, but her son has not been tested, she said, adding that his symptoms were similar to her own.
‘They are afraid to go back to school’
Jen Stefanic, who lives in a rural area in the northwestern U.S. state of Idaho, said her three children, a 12-year-old boy and girls aged 10 and seven, have all had waves of various symptoms since last May. . All were normally very active and healthy.
Symptoms include headache, low fever, aches and chills, joint pain, rash, acid reflux, diarrhea, stroke, loss of taste and smell, cough, wheezing and swelling of hands and feet, Stefanic said.
There were no coronavirus tests available, she said, but the family doctor told her to assume they all had the virus. She and her husband first fell ill in March.
“I really think this virus has changed things in each of us,” she said. “My heart aches for them because they are afraid to go back to school.”
Another mother in the English Midlands, who asked to be known as Jane, said her three boys had now been recovered but that she was continuing with suffering symptoms after they all became ill in March.
The oldest, who just turned 16, had Covid toes – where his toes and heels turned a dark purple color – for three months, but otherwise it felt good, she said.
One of her 11-year-old twins had a sore throat, tight chest, abdominal discomfort, covid toes and continued to suffer daily nosebleeds, she said. He has only reported feeling normal again since mid-July.
The other twin developed pain in the joints of the knees and hips, followed by intermittent illness and diarrhea over a period of several weeks, she said.
Doctor: No concrete data yet
Researchers have so far focused their attention on the small number of children who are hospitalized with MIS-C, instead of people suffering from symptoms following suspected coronavirus exposure.
Dr Nathalie MacDermott, a National Institute of Academic Clinical Teachers on Health Research at King’s College London and hospital doctor in London, told CNN she had seen more cases of children affected by MIS-C than acute Covid respiratory disease.
“At the moment, there are no concrete data published in relation to children and long-term problems, but that is because we are still quite early and children are not so badly affected,” MacDermott said. In addition, because of the relatively small number of children involved, studies may need to look at children in multiple countries, she said.
“It is quite possible that children may experience the kind of problems we hear about in adults such as long-term fatigue,” she said. “From a clinical perspective, we only see such children being admitted to the hospital, so it’s very difficult to know what’s going on in the community.”
MacDermott advised that parents of children with “significant persistent symptoms” seek help from their primary care providers to ensure that other possible underlying conditions are not missed.
“It is important that people realize that pediatric services are now fully operational,” she said, adding that the lack of a positive test would not exclude children from post-Covid care.
.
