{"id":283313,"date":"2025-10-07T05:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T05:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/283313\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T05:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T05:40:10","slug":"penn-researchers-find-children-adolescents-who-contract-covid-twice-at-higher-risk-for-long-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/283313\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn researchers find children, adolescents who contract COVID twice at higher risk for long COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"02-03-24-penn-medicine-zenna-haroon-1\"\/
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Smilow Research Building on Feb. 3, 2024.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Zenna Haroon<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Penn Medicine researchers found that children and adolescents who contract COVID-19 for a second time are twice as likely to develop long COVID compared to those who are infected only once, according to a new study.\n<\/p>\n

The findings<\/a>, published in\u00a0The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, also link repeat infections to elevated risks of heart disease, kidney damage, cognitive impairment, and other conditions.\u00a0The researchers used data drawn from the RECOVER<\/a> electronic health record database, which standardizes information across sites and undergoes rigorous quality assessments.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

In total, the study included 465,717 subjects, making it one of the largest studies \u2014 with extended follow-up \u2014 of pediatric long COVID to date. The study design<\/a> compared first versus second infections during a certain period of time, aligning calendar time and time from infection to isolate reinfection-specific risk.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Researchers also conducted extensive sensitivity analyses, including negative control experiments, subgroup analyses by age and sex, and adjustments for potential confounders.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Analyzing data from roughly\u00a0407,000 pediatric patients\u00a0across\u00a040 United States children\u2019s hospitals, the researchers report that among those with a single COVID-19 infection, about\u00a0904<\/a> cases of long COVID per million\u00a0emerge within six months. For those with a documented second infection, that rate doubled to\u00a01,884 per million.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The Penn Medicine news release<\/a> reports that repeat infection was also associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular, renal, and neurologic conditions. For example, myocarditis risk more than tripled after a second infection, and blood clots became more than twice as likely.\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n

Additional risks included increased incidence of kidney complications, cognitive issues such as memory and concentration problems, and vascular conditions.\n<\/p>\n

The study fits with broader concerns about pediatric long COVID. According to previous discourse<\/a>, long COVID in children causes myriad respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, and psychological symptoms<\/a> and remains understudied due to heterogeneity in definitions and follow-up durations.\u00a0While most pediatric COVID-19 cases are mild in terms of acute infection, some persist with symptoms spanning months.\n<\/p>\n

The study also discusses pediatric reinfection risk in the context of weakened strength of the immune system. During the omicron era, antibody protection declines over time even as T-cell responses remain stable, and protection from natural infection “diminished<\/a> more rapidly.”\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The researchers note that reinfections may contribute to cumulative morbidity in children and adolescents, highlighting the importance of ongoing follow-up medical care to inform clinical care for other patients and public health strategies more generally. They also stated that low vaccination rates in younger populations increase vulnerability since immunization remains one of the only tools shown to reduce long COVID risk by preventing reinfection.<\/p>\n

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation<\/a> to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.<\/p>\n

Donate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Smilow Research Building on Feb. 3, 2024. Credit: Zenna Haroon Penn Medicine researchers found that children and adolescents…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":283314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,36852,24255,45738,210,146017,50,1448,41929,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-283313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-front-news","10":"tag-front","11":"tag-general-assignment","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-latest-covid","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-pa","16":"tag-penn-medicine","17":"tag-pennsylvania","18":"tag-philadelphia","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115331283286548189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}