C-19/long COVID/post-vaccination syndrome in Children/Adolescents (Nervous system)

This retrospective study of 4,520 pediatric patients infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 demonstrated that acute necrotizing encephalopathy and pneumonia with comorbidities were the main causes of death.

This study has shown cerebrovascular lesions and vascular abnormalities in a high proportion (48.4%) of children with severe neurological manifestations of infection with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.

Clinical findings, placental pathology, and immunohistochemical analysis strongly suggest that second-trimester maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection and placentitis triggered an inflammatory response in the fetoplacental unit that affected the fetal brain.

A significantly higher number of patients with SARS-CoV-2-associated acute encephalopathy experienced severe disability or even death than patients with acute encephalopathy not associated with SARS-CoV-2.

This study reported the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in fetal brain tissue, associated with cortical hemorrhages, and linked to reduced blood vessel integrity and monocyte infiltration of the hemorrhagic cortex. SARS-COV-2 antigens were also detected in the placenta, amnion, and umbilical cord during early gestation (the first and second trimesters of pregnancy).

This study demonstrated that the risk of neurodevelopmental sequelae in fetuses exposed to maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection was gender-specific.

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was associated with a higher rate of febrile seizures and unconsciousness in infected children compared to non-Omicron variants.