On a Wednesday in September, Maud got a little sore throat. She had been sitting outside with her housemates the night before, it was a bit chilly. It must have been, she thought.
But the next day the sore throat continued and she called the GGD to get tested. “They only had a place for me on Sunday,” says Maud. Her mother came to collect her from her dorm room. With masks on and the windows open, they drove to her parental home.
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She is still there, because since she got the results two days later – it was positive – she has been in her room. She has severe complaints: pain in her ribs, back, intestines, head, eyes, chest, lungs, teeth and jaws.
Maud has palpitations, is short of breath, suffers from heat attacks, but no fever. She is tired, has little energy, sleeps poorly, is nauseous and dizzy. She hears a knock in her right ear, is forgetful, has poor balance and high blood pressure.
Exhausted after an appointment
Her mother put food at the door and chatted with her on a chair in the hall. For weeks, because Maud remained ill and was only allowed out when she was free of complaints for 24 hours. She was 17 when she got sick. Before she got corona, she was always healthy and never had any problems.
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“After ten weeks I requested a new test because my quarantine took a very long time.” Fortunately it was negative, so she was allowed to go outside again. “I just had no energy. After a date with friends in the park or a round of IKEA, I was short of breath and exhausted.
Still ill
And she still has all these complaints six months later. “I lie in bed all day. I try to go out two hours a day to eat downstairs and still get some exercise.”
She tries to take lessons for her Fashion Business study from her bedroom. Her mother still prepares her food because she doesn’t have the energy to make it herself. “Doctors have done all kinds of investigations, but cannot help me further. No cause came from those investigations.”
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Looking for solutions
Her pediatrician Linda van der Sande of the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven is also looking for solutions. “Maud’s long-term complaints are exceptional. We know adults with long-term complaints, but hardly any children or young people. At our hospital there are three children with similar complaints.”
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Extreme exception
“It concerns very few children who are ill for a long time after a covid infection,” says Caroline Brackel. She is a pediatric lung specialist at the Tergooi hospital and Amsterdam UMC and researcher of the COPP-2 study, the study of long-term residual complaints in children. There are long-term complaints after a covid infection if you still have complaints after twelve weeks.
“We now have 89 children between the ages of 2 and 17 who have long-term complaints, the largest group are teenagers. There is no need to worry if your child still has complaints. It really concerns few children.”
“With a new study we are trying to gain more insight into the complaints and treatment of children. We are also working on a guide for pediatricians, because a good diagnosis is difficult because the complaints in children are non-specific. The children who are ill have our attention and we try to help as much as possible. In addition, we share our knowledge with other care providers for children, such as general practitioners and youth doctors. “
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Sharing information nationally
Because the clinical picture is so rare, a national study has been set up for it. Pediatrician van der Sande: “As pediatricians, we want to know more about the post-covid syndrome in which complaints such as fatigue, concentration problems, chest pain and tightness can occur. Precisely because it is so rare, it is nice to share information nationwide.”
Pediatricians across the country are grouping together trying to discover the physiological background. Because why are some teenagers who were previously perfectly healthy still so sick? “We are trying to discover whether there is a different mechanism behind covid than with long-term complaints after other viral diseases.”
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Medical cause
In addition, pediatricians grapple with another dilemma. Because how much research is needed in a child? And what is the best guidance for these children? “We are now making use of our knowledge of the course of other viral diseases and the treatment that is given to adults with long-term complaints after corona.”
Pediatrician Van der Sande: “It is difficult, because we have conducted several studies at Maud, but cannot find a demonstrable medical cause. At a certain point we started a rehabilitation process.”
Maud is now working on her recovery at a physiotherapist and gets one more ultrasound for her heart. To rule out that the problems she has really aren’t due to anything other than corona. If not, doctors expect Maud to get better on her own. “As we also see with long-term complaints with other viral diseases.”
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