Patients who have recovered from the COVID-19 virus are more likely to have long-term physical, cognitive, and emotional effects that linger after recovery. Unfortunately, children are no exception. To help the growing number of children and adolescents affected by long COVID, the Kennedy Krieger Institute recently created the Pediatric Post COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic for young people who have recovered from acute COVID-19 illness but need additional support to regain lost neurological and physical functions like muscle strength and fine motor skills. 

What the Clinic Offers

The interdisciplinary clinic, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the only pediatric long- COVID clinics in the U.S. It offers services in the following areas: 

• Neurology
• Pediatric rehabilitation medicine
• Mental health
• Physical therapy

Referrals are also provided on a per-case basis for occupational therapy and inpatient services.

Why Is the Clinic Necessary?

While children tend to have milder initial illness from COVID-19 than adults, an increasing number of young people in the U.S. are experiencing lingering symptoms and developing neurological, muscular, and other complications after recovering from the virus. The clinic’s young patients are suffering from “fatigue, dizziness, decreased endurance, and deconditioning, but also more cognitive symptoms, such as brain fog, inattention, and anxiety,” said Dr. Brad Schlaggar, CEO and president of Kennedy Krieger Institute. 

Some children also develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) affects various parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, and gastrointestinal organs. It can manifest as fevers, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, and/or fatigue. MIS-C does not have a known single cause, Schlaggar said, but many of the Institute’s young patients with MIS-C previously had COVID-19 or had at least been exposed to someone with COVID. 

What Parents Can Do 

The clinic currently serves about 40 patients, most of them local, but the number of referrals is increasing in proportion to the increasing numbers of new pediatric cases, and Schlaggar anticipates a rise in referrals from around the country, as well. 

He encourages parents to get their kids vaccinated as soon as they become eligible. “Just looking at the surge in cases since June,” he explained, “there is a ten-fold increase in cases and hospitalizations for unvaccinated adolescents compared to vaccinated.”

In the meantime, he suggests continuing to take precautions like wearing masks, maintaining social distance, following recommended hand-washing guidelines, and getting flu shots.

*Orman, S. (2021, Sep. 19). More Kids Are Suffering from Long-COVID, Baltimore Has One of the Only Treatment Clinics. FOX News. https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/more-kids-are-suffering-from-long-covid-baltimore-has-one-of-the-only-treatment-clinics

Much about the novel coronavirus, i.e., COVID-19, is still not fully understood. As research progresses and our knowledge of the virus increases, information can change rapidly. We strive to update all of our articles as quickly as possible, but there may occasionally be some lag between scientific developments and our revisions.