I apologize for the added phrase. Here is the revised response:
Covid-19 vaccine lowers risk of Long COVID in children: Study
The effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine in reducing the risk of Long COVID in children has been highlighted in a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics. The research also indicates that vaccination has a stronger impact on adolescents who are at a higher risk of developing long Covid compared to younger children.
Although children, in general, have experienced lower severity of the virus compared to adults, accurately describing the burden of long Covid has been challenging due to the wide range of symptoms and the unknown ways in which the virus causes them, according to the researchers.
These symptoms can include brain fog, dyspnea, gastrointestinal dysfunction, generalized pain, and fatigue. Other symptoms are more acute, such as inflammatory reactions or heart problems, they added.
Lead study author Hanieh Razzaghi from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), US, stated, To date, no studies have assessed clinical data for large, diverse groups of children to address this important question. She explained that utilizing clinical data from various health care networks allowed them to analyze a sufficient sample size of patients, enabling the identification of rare effects of the virus on children.
The study utilized data from 17 health systems to evaluate the vaccine’s effectiveness against long Covid in two distinct age groups: children aged five to 11 and adolescents aged 12 to 17. The researchers also assessed the timeframe in which patients were affected.
Of the 1,037,936 children in the cohort, vaccination rates reached 56 percent. Among patients with Covid-19, the study found that the incidence of probable long Covid was 4.5 percent, but only 0.7 percent of patients were clinically diagnosed with long Covid.
The estimated effectiveness of the vaccine within 12 months of administration was 35.4 percent against probable long Covid and 41.7 percent against diagnosed long Covid. The researchers observed a higher estimate of vaccine effectiveness in adolescents compared to younger children. Additionally, the effectiveness decreased from 61.4 percent at six months to 10.6 percent at 18 months.
The study also revealed that children who were vaccinated after recovering from Covid-19 experienced benefits. The vaccine showed an effectiveness of 46 percent against probable long Covid after a subsequent episode of the virus.
Charles Bailey, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at CHOP and senior study author, emphasized the significance of the findings, stating, This study provides us with important data showing the protective effects of the vaccine against long-haul Covid and suggests that this protection is mostly from preventing visible infections. He further expressed hope that as vaccines continue to improve and become more effective against current strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, their protection against long Covid will also improve.
The study brings reassurance that the Covid-19 vaccine can significantly reduce the risk of long Covid in children, particularly in adolescents. As research continues to evolve, these findings offer valuable insights to inform public health strategies aimed at protecting children from the long-term effects of the virus.
