How long does it take for symptoms of multisystem inflammatory syndrome after COVID-19 in children?

Most of the symptoms of multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a severe complication of COVID-19, go away within six months, Lancet Child & Adolescent Health reported.

Scientists first described pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome after COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. This complication of SARS-CoV-2 develops after a person has suffered an acute infection. Later it became known that not only children, but also adults could face this problem.

British scientists studied 64 children who were treated for pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome in UK hospitals from April to September 2020. The average age of the participants was 10 years. All children were hospitalized, but during the 6 months of follow-up, none of the study participants died. During the acute phase of the complication, children most often suffered from symptoms from the gastrointestinal tract, nervous system and heart.

After 6 months, almost all the symptoms of the disease in children disappeared, systemic inflammation disappeared in all but one of the study participants. In two children, with an echocardiogram, doctors discovered pathology, in six, gastrointestinal syndromes persisted.

At the end of the study, scientists found small neurological abnormalities in 18 children. However, they did not affect the ability to perform routine activities. After discharge from the hospital, the young patients gradually increased muscle strength, but some of them walked more slowly than the age norm suggests. All but one of the children returned to normal schooling.

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