As head of the Children-Neonatal Unit at the Nancy CHRU, have you observed serious forms of Covid in children?
“One of the rare forms of complications, but potentially serious that children can have, are heart attacks, inflammatory, more or less severe. Affected children develop heart failure several weeks after the COVID infection, which is itself sometimes asymptomatic. From the start of the epidemic, there were indeed forms of inflammatory myocarditis, confused with Kawasaki disease. The are the most serious forms of infection in the healthy child that one could meet. Heart failure tends to recover more or less quickly, sometimes spontaneously. To my knowledge, there have been no long-term consequences, but you have to be careful. These are pathologies on which we have little perspective. What we do know is that there were seven deaths of children (<18 years) in France in the first wave, none from inflammatory myocarditis. Of these seven children, six presented with specific pathologies, such as immune deficiency. "
Have there been a lot of cases in Lorraine?
“Again, these are very infrequent complications. In Lorraine, between the two epidemic waves, there were less than ten cases of inflammatory myocarditis. There have also been more or less severe infections in children with diarrhea in the toddlers. In some adolescents, we had some respiratory manifestations. But none had severe respiratory failure. Most often, these are nonspecific symptoms such as fever. “
Do we have cases of Covid ong in children?
“I don’t know if we can talk about long COVID in children. We always have people who take a long time to recover from any infection. It occurs less frequently in children. There are studies underway to see if there are any long-term repercussions, but personally, I remain very cautious. You really have to allow yourself time to know what falls under the Covid and what falls under something else. “
For you, have the children been spared by the Covid?
“In every country in the world, children have been less affected by COVID than adults. Hence the question of the benefit / risk of vaccinating children. People are telling you today that they should not be vaccinated because they are not at risk of a severe form of Covid. However, I think they should be vaccinated. Even though severe forms are rare, children must be protected against these severe forms. And then, they must especially be vaccinated for the start of the school year. It is essential that they return to school normally and freely, without risking spreading the epidemic. “
According to you, the collateral damage of confinements is worse than the virus itself for children …
“In my opinion, dropping out of school was much more harmful than the Covid itself on the mental health of children. Today, the Covid pathology of children is mainly psycho-cognitive disorders and academic difficulties linked to dropping out of school and desocialization. We also have overweight problems in children who have stopped all physical activity … I think that all of this is more problematic for the health of children than the Covid itself. “
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