Why Long COVID May Hit Toddlers Harder Than Thought

Why Long COVID May Hit Toddlers Harder Than Thought

Publication date: Jul 08, 2025

The researchers enrolled 472 children aged 0-2 years and 539 children aged 3-5 years. If the data suggest that four children in every class develop long COVID after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, it would be a serious concern. He also serves as the principal investigator of the MOVE-COVID-BW project, a multicenter initiative in Baden-Wrttemberg, Germany, focused on long COVID in children and adolescents. These findings produced distinct symptom indices for each age group. Elling noted a key limitation: Seroprevalence studies showed that by 2023, over 90% of children had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. As younger children often have asymptomatic infections, many cases may have been missed. It is medically inaccurate to group all symptoms lasting more than 12 weeks such as headache, anosmia, or dyspnea under one broad diagnosis. Among them, 59% (278 of 472) of the younger group and 74% (399 of 539) of the older group had documented prior infections.

Concepts Keywords
Decade Aged
Germany Cov
Headaches Covid
Pediatrics Elling
Group
Infection
Long
Older
Parents
Said
Sars
Symptoms
Toddlers
Years
Young

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH chronic headaches
disease IDO quality
disease MESH brain fog
drug DRUGBANK Tropicamide
disease MESH anosmia
disease MESH dyspnea
disease MESH asymptomatic infections
disease MESH infection
pathway REACTOME Infectious disease
disease IDO symptom
pathway REACTOME Digestion
disease MESH Infectious Disease
pathway REACTOME SARS-CoV-2 Infection
disease MESH SARS-CoV-2 infection
disease MESH Long COVID
disease MESH general health

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