News Release
Tuesday 2 March 2021
The National Institutes of Health has launched a new research effort to understand how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, affects children, affecting approximately 13% of all COVID-19 cases in the United States make out. The effort is called the collaboration to assess risks and identify long-term outcomes for children with COVID (CARING for children with COVID). This research program is developing and funding studies to investigate why some children are at greater risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection than others, why symptoms vary between children who are infected, and how to identify children who ‘ have a risk for serious diseases of SARS-CoV. -2 infection. Research on the latter question is particularly focused on multisystem inflammation syndrome in children (MIS-C), a life-threatening condition characterized by severe inflammation of one or more body parts, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin eyes, and gastrointestinal organs. .
The program is led by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Research conducted by CARING for Children with COVID is supported in part by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
“This effort stems from NIH’s commitment to understanding the spectrum of risks that SARS-CoV-2 poses to children and to identifying interventions to improve their short- and long-term health outcomes,” said NICHD’s director and child care said with COVID collaborators. Chairman Diana Bianchi, Managing Director
Based on current data, most children with SARS-CoV-2 infection do not develop serious illnesses. However, those who do develop MIS-C may experience prolonged fever and severe abdominal pain and may experience shock. Although most children survive with MIS-C, the long-term cause and effect remain largely unknown. There is also early evidence that some children with asymptomatic or mild infection may develop such long-term symptoms as fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and breathing problems.
“While much of the devastation that COVID-19 causes is on older and vulnerable populations, it affects children in ways we are just beginning to understand,” said Gary Gibbons, MD, director of the NHLBI and co-chair of CARING for Children. with COVID. “That’s why this research and these networks are so critical.”
The program specifically developed new research protocols for three clinical networks with sites across the country, including children with SARS-CoV-2 infection and related conditions, including MIS-C:
CARE for children with COVID also includes the prediction of viral-associated inflammatory diseases in children with laboratory diagnostics and artificial intelligence (PreVAIL-kIds), a research funding program to encourage the development of approaches that put children at high risk for developing MIS -C identify. PreVAIL kIds are funded by NIH’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Radical (RADx-rad) program to support new, non-traditional approaches and rethought use of existing tools to address gaps in COVID-19 testing and monitoring pack.
Although the studies supported by CARING for Children with COVID have slightly different objectives, all will collect data on a core set of health measures that can be investigated later in studies. Data from CARING for Children with COVID activities will be made available on various NIH web platforms so that researchers can do additional analyzes and make more discoveries.
More information about the effort is available on the CARING for Children with COVID website at https://caring4kidswithcovid.nih.gov.
Over the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): NICHD leads research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, improve the lives of children and adolescents and optimize the capabilities for all. Visit https://www.nichd.nih.gov for more information.
About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): NHLBI is the world leader in heart, lung and blood disease research and sleep disorders that advance scientific knowledge, improve public health and save lives. Visit https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov for more information.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
NIH, the country’s medical research agency, contains 27 institutes and centers and is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, investigating the causes, treatments, and drugs for common and rare diseases. Visit www.nih.gov for more information on NIH and its programs.
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