Status: 03/26/2021 7:39 a.m.
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The RKI has registered 21,573 new corona infections. The seven-day incidence rose to 119.1. With a view to possible long-term consequences, experts are worried about the increasing number of infections in children and adolescents.
The seven-day incidence per 100,000 inhabitants continues to rise in Germany: On Friday the value was 119.1 – a day earlier it was 113.3. After falling below 60 in February, the seven-day incidence topped 100 last weekend.
The health workers submitted 21,573 newly registered cases to the Robert Koch Institute in the past 24 hours. That is almost 1,100 cases less than the day before, but around 4,000 more than on Friday last week. The RKI also reported 183 other deaths related to Covid 19 disease. The total number of corona cases recorded in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic has increased to 2,734,753. A total of 75,623 infected people died.
In view of the increasing number of infections, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of government of the countries agreed on the extension of the current lockdown rules until April 18 at their Corona summit on Tuesday night. This means that the emergency brake decided at the beginning of March continues to apply, which is supposed to take effect at an incidence value of over 100.
Long Covid in Children and Adolescents
With the increase in the number of infections in children and adolescents, experts also expect an increase in possible long-term effects. “Due to the relaxation of the measures, we expect more people affected with mostly diffuse, longer-lasting health problems,” said Markus Hufnagel from the Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at the Freiburg University Hospital of the dpa news agency. “Compared to the care situation in adults after surviving infection, pediatrics is not yet prepared for this.”
Acute corona infections are often symptom-free in children, and severe disease courses are still rather rare in young people. However, long-term effects are also reported in minors: These sometimes only set in months after the corona infection or worsened, says Hufnagel. In such cases, it is important for doctors, for example, to rule out the presence of other infections through tests. In order to be able to make outpatient offers to those affected, there are considerations to set up special outpatient clinics for children and adolescents. In the technical language, the phenomenon of Long Covid (Long Covid-19) or Post Covid (After Covid-19) is mentioned. With the relaxation of the corona measures with school and daycare openings, the focus is on possible late effects of the infection in these groups.
Variable clinical picture
“The clinical picture is very variable,” explains Hufnagel and lists possible consequences that could also occur in combination: These include chronic exhaustion, general reduced performance and joint and muscle pain. But also skin changes, similar to chilblains on the toes. On the other hand, persistent loss of smell and taste plays a subordinate role in children and adolescents compared to adults. “In general, the symptoms are not specific to Sars-CoV-2. This means that we are also familiar with persistent health restrictions from other viral infections such as Pfeiffer’s glandular fever,” emphasized Hufnagel.
The problem should not be underestimated: the higher the total number of cases, the greater the number of those who suffered Lange. “The problem is currently getting bigger rather than smaller, we are already seeing significantly more post-Covid cases,” said Hufnagel. “These are more likely to be adolescent patients; cases in the first ten years of life are significantly less common.” As a rule, parents would suspect a connection with a corona infection, in some cases there is already evidence of antibodies.
So far there is no data from Germany on the subject, said Hufnagel, who, together with colleagues from the Dresden University Children’s Clinic, has established a register of the disease progression of all inpatient children and adolescents with Sars-CoV-2 infection from the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases. A study in which households with corona cases were followed over a longer period of time showed that five percent of children and adolescents under 14 years of age still had at least one symptom three months after the infection. In adults, however, it affects up to one in three, said Hufnagel.
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