LONG COVID-19 SYMPTOM PROFILE IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS TESTED FOR SARS-COV-2

Even though more than two years have passed since the global pandemic started, COVID-19 continues to impact children all over the world. The most common course of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children is short term with no or mild symptoms. However, there are two long-term consequences: long COVID and multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). A post-COVID19 programme for children has been created in Latvia; however, we know that the availability of this service is limited. We developed an online survey so that we could screen for those paediatric patients with long COVID who needed to see a specialist as soon as possible. The cross-sectional study from 1 November 2021 to 27 March 2022 included 220 patients. In our study, the most frequent symptoms in the age group < 1.5 years were irritability (50%), mood swings (50%), persistent cough (33.3%) and loss of appetite (33.3%). In the group aged 1.5–5 years, a persistent cough (54.4%), mood swings (43.9%) and irritability (42.1%) were the most common symptoms, while in the group aged 6–10 years, fatigue (56.6%), abdominal pain (55.3%), headache (50%), and mood swings (50%) were seen most often. Meanwhile in the 11–18 age group, impaired physical activity (66.7%), fatigue (62.3%) and drowsiness (62.3%) were the most frequently seen symptoms.