Several doctors at the Timone hospital in Marseille have looked into cases of children and adolescents suffering from prolonged symptoms of Covid-19. According to their research, certain areas of their brain are affected, which would explain their condition.
This is an important discovery. A team of doctors from the Timone hospital in Marseille tried to explain in a study why do the children can, like adults, suffer from a long Covid, regardless of “age and initial severity (from infection editor’s note)“.
According to data, reported by Paris Match, during the first wave of the epidemic, 17% of children and adolescents positive for Covid-19 have developed a long Covid, with several symptoms (severe fatigue, headaches, memory and concentration problems). Until then no physical organ damage explained it.
Marseille pediatricians have therefore pushed the research. They gave tests to seven young patients, with prolonged symptoms of Covid-19. These were explored by functional imaging (PET-scan). And according to the results, several areas of children’s brain are affected.
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“On the PET-scanner we noticed this hypometabolism present in particular regions, the olfactory bulb, the brainstem, everything that is a region of the cerebellum.”, explains Dr. Aurélie Morand, who participated in the study, to Franceinfo before adding. “It’s a whole circuit that is involved in pain, memory, olfaction. We think that the fact that these areas are hypofunctional, work less well, could explain their symptoms”. Clearly, these brain abnormalities support the idea that it is a reaction to the virus or to inflammation, during infection with SARS-CoV-2.
Further studies should confirm this. But faced with this first observation, the doctors of Timone want to educate the public and their colleagues on this pathology which can explain to some patients why their daily life is not the same since they caught Covid-19. “What must be kept in mind is that a patient who has symptoms that lead to a reduction in his quality of life so important that he is no longer able to go to school, to get up or to do their activities of daily living, must be referred to a hospital to be able to take stock and sort things out. “, declares Aurélie Morand.
a global follow-up, coordinated by pediatricians, neuropediatricians, psychologists and physiotherapists, would be one of the solutions to bring to patients, so that they find a “normal” life, according to the practitioner.