(ANSA) – ROME, SEPTEMBER 23 – SarsCov2 infection causes lung damage in children and adolescents that lasts even a year after infection; the outcomes are worse for those who have developed long-Covid. This happens even if you had fallen ill with Covid-19 in a form not so severe as to require hospitalization. This is what emerges from a small study by the University Hospital Erlangen (Germany) published in Radiology.
The researchers evaluated changes in lung structure and function in 54 former pediatric Covid-19 patients aged 5 to 17, comparing them to 9 peers who had not contracted SarsCoV2 infection.
Tests showed that structural damage to the lungs that Covid-19 had had is rare: only one of the study participants had morphological changes. On the other hand, the decrease in lung performance is frequent: research has in fact found a 20-25% reduction in lung function in children and young people who had Covid-19 compared to peers who had not contracted the infection; the decline in lung function was slightly higher in those who also developed long-Covid.
For the researchers, the data is surprising. “Persistent symptoms after Covid-19 still cause diagnostic odyssey and this is especially true for young people,” said Ferdinand Knieling, one of the authors of the study. “Because children develop a robust, cross-reactive and sustained immune response after SarsCoV2 infection, the lung dysfunction seen in our study is an unexpected finding,” the researchers point out. (HANDLE).
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