Marseille doctors highlight a possible link between the symptoms of Covid long in young people and brain damage

Children can also suffer from a long Covid, this is the conclusion of a team of doctors from the Timone hospital in Marseille (article in English). They followed children with prolonged symptoms and demonstrated, with supporting imaging, that their brains were affected. It’s a first. Franceinfo was able to meet one of the pediatricians who carried out this research.

Pediatricians first followed 201 young patients affected by Covid-19 during the first wave. More than a year after the infection 17% of them still had symptoms: intense fatigue, problems with memory, concentration, headaches … etc. As with the adult victims of long Covid, no physical organ damage was detected on these children.

Doctor Aurélie Morand therefore subjected seven of his small patients to a further exploration, via a PET-Scan and she discovered that their brain was affected. “On the PET-scanner we noticed this hypometabolism present in particular regions, the olfactory bulb, the brainstem, all that is region of the cerebellum. It is a whole circuit that is involved in pain, memory, ‘olfaction. It is thought that the fact that these areas are hypofunctional, work less well, could explain their symptoms “, she explains.

Children affected by a long Covid are often adolescents, they are rather girls with an allergic ground. Further research needs to expand these data, but on the basis of these first two studies, the pediatric infectious disease specialist wants to raise awareness among doctors and parents. “It is certain that the fact of having highlighted anomalies makes it possible to explain to the doctors, as to the patients, that what is happening has an organic, physiological reality. is that a patient who has symptoms that cause his quality of life to decrease so much that he is no longer able to go to school, get up or do his daily activities, must be referred to a hospital to be able to take stock and sort things out. “

To promote the disappearance of symptoms Aurélie Morand recommends comprehensive monitoring coordinated by pediatricians, pediatric neurologists, psychologists and physiotherapists to help these young patients recover and return to normal life.