Hundreds of children suffering with 'long covid'

Paediatricians have warned that hundreds of children are suffering from long covid, with experts unsure where to refer them.

The warnings come ahead of today's debate, which will see MPs discuss the issue of long covid in Parliament.

There has been increasing talk of the condition in adults, with the NHS launching 60 long covid clinics around the country to help treat the effects.

One support group has more than 33,000 members, all reporting long-running and often debilitating symptoms months after contracting Covid-19.

But now a growing number of parents are seeking treatment for their children - with symptoms ranging from extreme fatigue and chest pain, to rashes and seizures.

Fatigue left Sammie and her daughter housebound

Sammie McFarland from Dorchester in Dorset caught coronavirus in March, along with her 15-year-old daughter.

Both were healthy and active but, 10 months on, they still struggle with fatigue which has left them housebound.

“We have both been essentially on complete bed rest since we became unwell in March,” Sammie said.

“That’s resulted in her missing her school, her friends, she’s had to give up all her activities, her ballet. To be confined to bed for months on end has been hugely challenging. Particularly when the other children were back at school in September and she was unable to return… that was really hard because then there was that realisation that she was missing out on normal life”.

The youngest sufferer is just 9-months old

After finding little support and information for people in her situation, Sammie set up the group 'Long Covid Kids'. In just two months, she says the parents of more than 500 children have joined. The youngest sufferer is a 9-month-old baby.

“It really bothers me that there are so many parents out there that are probably looking at symptoms in their children…people aren’t joining the dots because it’s not being talked about, there’s never been a government campaign to talk about it… and they’re being missed from the statistics. It really is quite alarming the amount of children we’ve got coming through now.”

Due to the lack of research and knowledge about long covid in children, many families say they’ve been left struggling to find support or have even been dismissed by some medical professionals.

It's a "growing concern"

Head of Paediatrics at Cambridge University Professor David Rowitch says it’s still true that kids generally have been much less severely affected by coronavirus - but he says long covid in a small number of them is a growing concern:

He said: “These are syndromes that typically will get better over time, but they can also benefit from intervention.

"So there is a real need in my view, in the view of the Royal College of Paediatrics, to properly document the occurrence of long covid in children to provide a rationale for providing those services in the NHS.”

The condition hinders all areas of a child's life

Meanwhile, Liliana, 16, from Lincolnshire caught coronavirus in September. Before getting ill, she was healthy and active, coaching swimming in her spare time. After catching the virus she was admitted to hospital with a rash all over her body, and she’s still struggling with the symptoms five months on.

Since contracting the virus, she hasn’t been able to return to school to continue studying for her GCSEs.

Her mother Gail Jackson has submitted evidence to today’s debate and hopes it will bring more awareness of the condition.

“Clearly for the majority of children it’s not a serious illness, but there are those exceptions to the rule," she says.

"There needs to be recognition of that, and awareness that there is that risk. We want there to be clear treatment and referral pathways for those children so that GPs know where to refer them.

“And we really want there to be clinical research so that there’s a great understanding of what treatment options there might be.”

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