A new pan-Canadian research platform led by a pediatrician from CHU Sainte-Justine is being created to better understand the impacts of COVID-19 on children.
The POPCORN platform (Pediatric outcome improvement through coordination of research networks in English) has obtained a $6.7 million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, announced Monday by the federal Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos.
“This platform will support research teams in pediatric hospitals across the country and will facilitate the transfer and use of information to ensure better coordination of research results,” explained Mr. Duclos at a press conference. at the CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal.
The initiative, which will bring together around a hundred clinical researchers in pediatric health from 16 establishments in Canada, will be orchestrated by Dr. Caroline Quach, a microbiologist-infectiologist known to the general public as she has regularly appeared in the media since the start of the pandemic.
Researchers will be able to answer the questions identified by decision-makers as well as those of parents and young people.
“POPCORN will be able to address the disease burden associated with new SARS COV-2 variants and the impacts of the disease for our children with medical conditions that leave them vulnerable to complications,” Dr. Quach detailed.
The platform will also be able to assess whether the measures implemented to control transmission have led to “collateral damage, including impacts on children’s development, their learning and their mental health”, she added.
The mother of a boy with an inflammatory syndrome came to testify to the importance of having this research. The start of the pandemic was a source of concern for the family of Valérie Roy, while little information circulated concerning the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable young people.
CHU Sainte-Justine staff answered “a thousand and one questions” from the family and were able to intervene when her son, now 19, was recently infected with the virus, said Ms. Roy.
“My child was lucky to have medicine for adults. I hope that the others will have the chance with Dr. Quach’s research to have better support and better knowledge so that they can have the most normal childhood possible,” she commented.
“They have a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, which can have very significant consequences. Kory was left with fatigue, but it’s unclear if he can catch up with COVID-19. We still have questions, ”continued Ms. Roy.
A “shadow zone”
Dr. Quach indicated that in general COVID-19 “is a disease that is relatively mild in pediatrics”, with few children hospitalized. However, a “grey area” remains on longer-term complications, the so-called long COVID.
“There seems to be a certain proportion of children who will develop symptoms that will last beyond 12 weeks, but the percentage of children who suffer from them seems much lower than in adults”, mentioned the specialist.
POPCORN researchers will also follow for at least a year two groups of young people who present syndromes resembling COVID-19, specifies Dr. Quach.
They plan to provide evidence that will allow better decision-making against COVID-19, but also in the face of other pandemics or health emergencies.
Dr. Quach said the team’s vision is to expand the work of this network of researchers to other pediatric issues.