To the Editor: We would like to share ideas on the publication “Long COVID in children up to 12 y of age - A retrospective telephonic survey published in IJP [1].” Sah et al. conducted a telephonic survey to investigate the outcome of children hospitalized with COVID-19 infection in a tertiary care hospital in North India in terms of persistent symptoms [1]. In comparison to earlier research, Sah et al. discovered that the incidence of long-COVID was low in this telephone survey [1]. According to Sah et al., long-COVID data can impact vaccine policy for children and transform the perception of COVID-19 in children from a benign condition to one with the potential to create long-term chronic severe health consequences [1].
Long-COVID-19 has an issue that requires immediate action. Other critical difficulties must also be addressed. An important issue is that this study by Sah et al. validated the patients’ prior apparent clinical diagnosis, however, the patient could still have undetected co-morbid illnesses. Also the patients may have been given the second COVID-19 vaccine [2]. Earlier immunizations must be discussed as well. There must be sufficient evidence to reach a conclusion about how the illness affects health issues. One might believe that protracted COVID, also known as extended COVID-19, is not the major source of all symptoms experienced by a patient with the illness.
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References
- 1.Sah RR, Dash N, Kumar S, Dawman L, Verma S. Long COVID in children up to 12 y of age - A retrospective telephonic survey. Indian J Pediatr. 2023 doi: 10.1007/s12098-023-04537-5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Haq ZU, Fazid S, Yousafzai YM, et al. Repeated covid-19 infection exists: A case series from Pakistan. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. 2021;33:519–522. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]