The Government of Canada will invest $6.7 million to better understand the effects of COVID-19 on children.
Posted at 11:54 a.m.
“There is a lot to be done to repair the damage [causés par la pandémie] and prepare for the future,” said the Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, at a press conference on Monday morning. “One way in which we will prepare for the future is by funding a research platform on COVID-19 which is focused on the health of children and adolescents,” he added.
This research platform named “POPCORN” will support pediatric health researchers from 16 institutions across the country. Everything will be led by the DD Caroline Quach, pediatrician, microbiologist-infectiologist at the CHU Sainte-Justine and professor at the University of Montreal.
The goal? Investigate the impacts of disease, vaccination and public health measures on the health and well-being of children and youth.
“POPCORN will be able to address the burden of disease associated with new variants of SARS-Cov-2, the impacts of the disease for our children with conditions that make them vulnerable to complications, but also assess whether the measures put in place to control transmission have resulted in collateral damage, “detailed the DD Quach.
The specialist recalled that COVID-19 is generally a mild disease in pediatrics. “Despite the fact that we had a lot of cases in the fifth and sixth waves, we had very few hospitalizations,” she said.
She said, however, that the long-term impacts of the disease remain poorly understood. “There seems to be a certain proportion of children who will develop symptoms that will last beyond 12 weeks. It varies between 1 to 20%, ”she said.
Help the most vulnerable
Valérie Roy, the mother of a boy followed at the CHU Sainte-Justine, was delighted with the funding of research in children, since she often has the impression that young people are forgotten.
Her 19-year-old son, who has an inflammatory syndrome, contracted COVID-19 in recent weeks. Thanks to the supervision of multiple doctors and the drug Paxlovid, he came out of it with few sequelae.
“I hope the other children will have the chance, with the research of DD Quach, to have better support and better knowledge to have as normal a childhood as possible,” said Ms.me Roy.