According to a study, children infected covid-19 virus, but not hospitalised, can still experience long symptoms up to three months past infection.
The research, published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, examined data from volunteers between the ages of 5 and 18 across the state of Texas, US, reports Hindustan Times.
Data for this study was collected before and after the vaccine rollout and during the waves of the Delta and Omicron variants.
First author of the study and professor at the University of Texas Health Science Centre Sarah Messiah said, "We were interested in understanding if children impacted with an acute or severe infection of COVID-19 would go on to have persisting symptoms, or what we call long COVID."
“This particular study is unique as the first population-based study in literature to report on prevalence of long COVID in children who have not been hospitalised with COVID-19," Messiah added.
Researchers said, a total of 82 paediatric volunteers, which is 4.8% of the total 1,813, reported having long COVID symptoms.
About 1.5 per cent showed symptoms that lasted between four and 12 weeks, including loss of taste and smell, fatigue, and cough, they added.
The study also found that, additional 3.3% children reported that symptoms such as loss of taste and smell, cough, and difficulty breathing persisted for longer than 12 weeks.
"When we looked at risk factors of those who reported symptoms past 12 weeks, we found that, children who were unvaccinated and who had obesity had a higher chance of developing long COVID," Messiah said.
