For kids with Long COVID, good treatment hard to find in U.S.: Time

A healthcare worker shows a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Times Square, New York, the United States, on June 22, 2022. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

Even specialty clinics are still learning a lot about pediatric Long COVID, which has been researched much less than adult Long COVID, says Time.

NEW YORK, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- There are more than a dozen pediatric Long COVID clinics scattered across the United States, according to a directory kept by the support group Long COVID Families, but getting into them isn't always easy, reported Time on Monday.

The pediatric Long COVID clinic at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., has a waitlist three to four months long, director Alexandra Yonts was quoted as saying.

That's "problematic," Yonts said, but it's the best she and her small team can do without additional funding.

As it is, they see Long COVID patients just one afternoon per week, and only because all the clinicians happened to be free from other responsibilities during that window of time, according to the report.

Even specialty clinics are still learning a lot about pediatric Long COVID, which has been researched much less than adult Long COVID, said the report.

Among adults, many researchers now believe the condition occurs either because the virus lingers in the body or sparks an abnormal immune response that can last much longer than an acute case, it added.