The Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 and MIS-C on Children’s Health across the Life Course: Emerging Evidence and Recommendations

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had an enormous impact on the health of adults and children. Emerging evidence suggests that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection contributes to long-term health consequences in adults, even in individuals who did not develop symptoms of COVID-19. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) has been suggested to have long-term health consequences in children and adolescents, but this and other potential post-infectious conditions remain largely undefined. Potential mechanisms for long-term health consequences include biological programming as well as the indirect effects of social disruption. In addition, there is a lack of clinical guidelines and recommendations on how to screen for the development of pandemic-related chronic conditions.

This Research Topic focuses on investigations into the long-term health effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents. The goal is to identify and characterize post-infectious syndromes and support the development of clinical and policy recommendations for screening and management of pandemic-related long-term health consequences in pediatrics.

The scope of this Research Topic includes epidemiological and clinical investigations to describe and define long-term health consequences, and investigations into the underlying mechanisms involved, including how consequences of MIS-C may differ from similar conditions such as Kawasaki disease and macrophage activation syndrome. The Research Topic requests a broad range of investigations into the direct effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection and indirect effects through social and health care disruption.