(Eds. note: The video attached is from a story on research into long-haul COVID cases.)
Arkansas Children's Research Institute (ACRI) will receive an estimated $25 million and coordinate a nationwide study of long-haul cases of COVID in children.
The study will help scientists on how to understand the long-term impacts of COVID in children. The resulting research could then lead to more effective treatments against the virus.
“We’ll be looking not only at children’s hospitalizations and studying their pneumonia, but also examining the long-term impacts on their hearts, on their lungs, on their development and their ability to regulate hormones,” said site research lead Jessica Snowden, MD, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Arkansas Children’s. “We don’t know yet just how many problems arise because of COVID long-term. We’ll be figuring out what causes these problems and how we can prevent them.”
Scientists at Children's and UAMS will study families whose children have been diagnosed with the virus.
ACRI will coordinate 14 other states as the "pediatric arm" of the research.
The National Institute of Health has awarded almost $470 million across the nation to study the long-term impact of COVID. That funding was supported by the American Rescue Plan.
The studies will include adults, children, and pregnant people as well as study people during and after a COVID diagnosis. Researchers will also analyze data from millions of health records.
The studies are expected to provide insights on the long-term effects of the virus, symptoms, the underlying causes, risk factors, and potential treatments and prevention.