THE ESSENTIAL
- A study shows that 165 of 233 young people (70%) who contracted long-term Covid three months after infection recovered two years after the onset of the disease.
- On the other hand, 68 of the 233 (30%) adolescents, particularly the oldest and most deprived, were not yet cured.
- Compared to boys, girls were also less likely to recover from long Covid.
What is the recovery time in the event of long Covid? This is the question asked by scientists from the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health at UCL and several British universities. To answer this, they decided to conduct a study, the results of which were published in the journal Communications Medicine.
12,632 teenagers were interviewed three, six, 12 and 24 months after a Covid-19 infection
As part of the work, the team used data from the national Long COVID in Children and Young People (CloCk) cohort. The latter focused on adolescents, aged 11 to 17, who took a PCR test for the coronavirus virus between September 2020 and March 2021. “Young people were grouped according to their infection status: negative initial test but no subsequent positive test (NN); negative initial test but one subsequent positive test (NP); positive initial test but no reported reinfection (PN) and positive initial test and declared reinfection (…) Of the 31,012 young people eligible 24 months after the PCR test, 12,632 participated in the research.”
The volunteers were asked about their health three, six, 12 and 24 months after coronavirus infection and had to give details of their symptoms. As a reminder, in February 2022, researchers published a consensus definition of long Covid which implied that a person had more than one symptom, such as fatigue, sleep problems, shortness of breath or headaches, as well as problems with mobility, independence, usual activities, pain/discomfort, or feeling worried or sad.
30% of young people with long Covid have not recovered within two years following infection
According to the results, 7.2% of patients systematically met the definition of long Covid at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months. They had a median of 5 to 6 symptoms at each time point. “Between 20 and 25 percent of all infection status groups have more than three symptoms 24 months after testing and 10 to 25 percent have more than five symptoms.” The authors found that the reinfected group had more symptoms than the other groups who tested positive. As for participants who tested negative, their symptom burden was the lowest. According to the researchers, two years after a proven Covid infection, 165 of the 233 young people (70%) who had long-term Covid three months after contamination had recovered. On the other hand, 68 of the 233 (30%) had not yet recovered from the pathology. Older and more deprived adolescents were less likely to recover.
Long Covid: girls more vulnerable than boys
Another observation: girls were almost twice as likely to meet the definition of long Covid at 24 months, compared to boys. However, the team notes that they did not assess menstruation and that some symptoms, such as headaches and fatigue, may be attributable to PMS given the high proportion of girls. From now on, “We intend to do further research to try to better understand why 68 teenage girls did not recover,” concluded Terence Stephenson, who led the study.
