1. Persistent symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection in children: a cross-sectional population-based serological study
- Author
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François Chappuis, Silvia Stringhini, Delphine Courvoisier, Idris Guessous, Antoine Flahault, Laurent Kaiser, Andrew S Azman, Didier Pittet, Isabella Eckerle, Carlos de Mestral, Omar Kherad, Benjamin Meyer, Ania Wisniak, Nicolas Vuilleumier, Alexandre Moulin, Elsa Lorthe, Hélène Baysson, Sabine Yerly, Jennifer Villers, Mayssam Nehme, Roxane Dumont, Jean-François Balavoine, Isabelle Arm-Vernez, Delphine Bachmann, Patrick Bleich, Prune Collombet, Nacira El Merjani, Natalie Francioli, Marion Frangville, Séverine Harnal, Pierre Lescuyer, Andrea Jutta Loizeau, Fanny-Blanche Lombard, Chantal Martinez, Ludovic Metral-Boffod, Natacha Noël, Francesco Pennacchio, Javier Perez-Saez, Jane Portier, Géraldine Poulain, Caroline Pugin, Nick Pullen, Zo Francia Randrianandrasana, Aude Richard, Viviane Richard, Guillemette Violot, María-Eugenia Zaballa, Oumar Ba, Fatim Ba, Michael Balavoine, Lison Beigbeder, Julie Berthelot, Alain Cudet, Samia Hurst, Julien Lamour, François L’Huissier, Lucie Ménard, Lakshmi Menon, Frederic Rinaldi, Jessica Rizzo, Khadija Samir, Claire Semaani, Stéphanie Testini, Anne Perrin, Arnaud G L'Huillier, Klara Maria Posfay-Barbe, Antoine Bal, Rémy Barbe, Gaëlle Bryand, Paola Vargas, Richard Dubos D'ippolito, and Deborah Urrutia Rivas
- Subjects
Medicine - Abstract
Objectives To estimate the prevalence of children and adolescents reporting persistent symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection.Design A random sample of children and adolescents participated with their family members to a serological survey including a blood drawing for detecting antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein and a questionnaire on COVID-19-related symptoms experienced since the beginning of the pandemic.Setting The study took place in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland, between June and July 2021.Participant 660 children aged between 2 and 17 years old.Primary and secondary outcome The primary outcome was the persistence of symptoms beyond 4 weeks comparing seropositive and seronegative participants. The type of declared symptoms were also studied as well as associated risk factors.Results Among seropositive children, the sex-adjusted and age-adjusted prevalence of symptoms lasting longer than 2 weeks was 18.3%, compared with 11.1% among seronegatives (adjusted prevalence difference (ΔaPrev)=7.2%, 95% CI: 1.5% to 13.0%). Among adolescents aged 12–17 years, we estimated the prevalence of experiencing symptoms lasting over 4 weeks to be 4.4% (ΔaPrev,95% CI: −3.8% to 13.6%), whereas no seropositive child aged 2–11 reported symptoms of this duration. The most frequently declared symptoms were fatigue, headache and loss of smell.Conclusions We estimated the prevalence of experiencing persistent symptoms lasting over 4 weeks to be around 4% among adolescents, which represents a large absolute number, and should raise awareness and concern. We did not observe meaningful differences of persistent symptoms between seropositive and seronegative younger children, suggesting that they may be less affected than their older counterparts.
- Published
- 2022
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