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Medscape
02-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
APA Unveils Early Plans for the Next DSM
LOS ANGELES — Exploratory plans for a new iteration of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) were presented publicly for the first time at American Psychiatry Association (APA) 2025 Annual Meeting. However, the APA stopped short of calling it a full sixth version of the DSM (DSM-6) at least for now. The Chair of the Future DSM Strategic Committee Maria Oquendo, MD, PhD, head of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, noted that the group's goal is transparency and to solicit public feedback. 'There are people who are DSM fans and some who kind of hate it. So we have made it a point to talk to people and ask how we can fix it because we are all ears. If there are things we can do better, we definitely want to know,' Oquendo told Medscape Medical News. To date, four DSM subcommittees have been established, focusing on social determinants, quality of life and functioning, biomarkers, and structure. During dedicated oral sessions held throughout the meeting, each subcommittee chair presented preliminary plans, emphasizing that these are still in development and remain open to revision. 'Why now? We want to advance the efforts that were started in the DSM-5 revision process, with the idea that it's time to move the psychiatry nosology forward. Specifically, we want to reflect evolving knowledge,' Oquendo said. She added that the goal is to make the manual a 'truly living document,' with updates occurring in step with scientific advances. Although she would not confirm whether this work is laying the groundwork for what will eventually become DSM-6, Oquendo said the target publication date for the new iteration is about 4 years from now. Looking Back, Moving Forward The last fully new DSM was DSM-5, which was published in 2013. The latest update, the Text Revision version (DSM-5-TR), was released in 2022. The manual has a long history. The first DSM was published in 1952, followed by the second edition (DSM-II) in 1968, the third edition (DSM-III) in 1980, and the fourth edition (DSM-IV) in 1994. In addition to revising classifications for several diagnoses and discontinuing the use of Roman numerals in its abbreviation, the most significant change in DSM-5 was the removal of the multiaxial system first introduced in DSM-III. Instead, it shifted toward a greater emphasis on dimensional assessments, especially functioning and symptom severity. It also rearranged the chapter order and grouping of disorders. The development of the DSM-5 took nearly a decade, involving years of planning, field trials, revisions, public feedback, and multiple rounds of updates. In March 2024, the APA's Board of Trustees approved the creation of the Future DSM Strategic Committee, with Oquendo becoming its chair. The full group was tasked with monitoring new developments that could affect the structure, definition, and criteria of DSM disorders. 'The rapidity of scientific developments in psychiatry has never been faster. The idea is: We want to integrate critical feedback on the DSM and work towards [including] classification models, measurements, and advances in neuroscience,' Oquendo said. Additionally, she said, the APA wants to 'harmonize' with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as much as possible. Integrating Psychiatry and Neuroscience The first DSM oral session introduced the subcommittee focused on the importance of functioning and quality of life. Its goal, as noted in the abstract, is to evaluate how these two factors 'can provide valuable insight into the patient's perspective on how their disease impacts their ability to carry out important activities, as well as provide key indicators for treatment progress toward patient-centered recovery goals.' The Chair Karen Drexler, MD, associate professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, told attendees that key aspects include considering the perspectives of the individual, family, community, and clinician over time. 'All are valid,' Drexler said. The Social Determinants subcommittee is tasked with assessing the impact on mental health from factors such as ethno-racial backgrounds, sex and gender, belief systems, personality, income, an individual's living circumstances, and exposures through the years to both advantages and disadvantages. Both subcommittees are also examining single and/or multiple instruments to determine which are most reliable in assessing these factors. The mandate of the Biomarkers subcommittee is to 'bridge the gap between psychiatry and neuroscience' and to evaluate both the benefits and potential risks of incorporating a biological approach into the diagnostic process. The group is also exploring the use of wearable devices. A More Organic, Functional Approach In addition to identifying the best structure for the new manual, a fourth subcommittee was tasked with determining 'strategies to integrate a dimensional approach into the DSM's foundation using a more organic and functional approach.' The Subcommittee Chair Dost Öngür, MD, PhD, of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told attendees that the current manual has faced criticism for being both overly specific and too vague — particularly in cases involving unspecified diagnoses. 'Only a minority of patients present with a classic disorder, as described in the [current] DSM. Most present with a mixture of problems to varying degrees along dimensions of mood, anxiety, psychosis, and addiction,' Öngür said. Ideally, a new edition would incorporate multiple components beyond the diagnosis, allow for varying levels of specificity in diagnostic formulation, document severity as a separate factor, and 'crosswalk' to ICD codes for billing purposes, he noted. Öngür also introduced a preliminary and evolving concept involving four 'boxes' that clinicians would fill out, that would potentially include contextual factors, biological factors, diagnoses, and transdiagnostic features. He emphasized that the current content is only illustrative and not a formal proposal, intended to show how the group is thinking about a workable framework. The next step is to gather data and feedback from the field on what this structure should include. Step two would then focus on proposing specific content. When asked after the presentations whether there has been detailed consideration of how future updates to the new manual might be handled, including their frequency and the use of tech-driven platforms, Session Chair Nitin Gogtay, MD, chief of research and deputy medical director at the APA, said no decisions have been made yet. 'There is such a thing as too many updates. But at the same time, as the science advances, we don't want to wait to address that. So we need to find that sweet spot in the balance,' Gogtay said. Suicidal Conditions as Stand-Alone Diagnoses Another session explored the possible inclusion of four suicide-related conditions as distinct diagnoses in the next edition of the DSM — all of which have been proposed previously. These include suicidal behavior disorder (suicidal behavior within the past 24 months), nonsuicidal self-injury disorder (which may precede suicidal behavior), suicide crisis syndrome (a mental state of entrapment 'and ruminative flooding with or without suicidal ideation'), and acute suicidal affective disturbance (a conscious suicidal intent that escalates rapidly). In the DSM-5-TR, suicidality is included only as a symptom of other conditions, such as depression and borderline personality disorder. 'Nevertheless, a recent report estimated that 19.6% of individuals who attempted suicide did so despite not meeting criteria for any existing psychiatric disorder,' the presenters noted in their abstract. They added that new suicide-specific diagnoses would help 'identify at-risk individuals who would otherwise be deemed healthy by current suicide risk screenings.' Regardless of whether any of these conditions will be included in the next DSM, 'establishing suicide risk assessment and intervention competency across disciplines will be essential over the next several years,' Edward A. Selby, PhD, professor of psychology at Rutgers, said in his presentation. Michael Myers, MD, chair of the meeting's Scientific Program Committee and noted expert on suicide prevention, said that he is all for the inclusion of suicide-related conditions. 'This has been in the works for at least 10 years: That there is something outside of our conceptualization in DSM and ICD that warrants it as a stand-alone,' Myers told Medscape Medical News. Oquendo agreed but noted that the DSM is also used for its codes. So as much as a group may want a new diagnosis to be included, it's important to understand the potential downstream effects inclusion could cause. It's also why starting a brand new DSM manual from scratch isn't realistic, she noted. 'We need to be pragmatic. We can't just start over because that has implications for people who are getting treatment today and whether their insurance is going to cover it. These types of practical considerations are essential,' Oquendo said.
India Today
16-05-2025
- Health
- India Today
Baby healed in world's first gene-editing therapy; Indian-origin doctor plays key role
A nine-month-old baby boy, who was born with a rare and life-threatening genetic disease, was successfully treated with an customised gene-editing treatment made just for him. Indian-origin cardiologist Kiran Musunuru was in the team of doctors who became the first to treat the baby using the customised gene-editing therapy. The baby was diagnosed with a severe genetic disorder that typically proves fatal for about half of affected infants in early nine-month-old baby, identified as KJ, was born with severe CPS1 deficiency -- a condition that affects only one in 1.3 million people -- was treated by Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, a senior physician, and doctor Kiran doctors at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania began work immediately after the boy's diagnosis, completing the complex design, manufacturing, and safety testing of the personalised therapy within six months. The baby was just seven months old when he received the experimental treatment in February was born with a severe condition called carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) deficiency, a disorder so rare it affects only one in a million births. The disease is caused by a faulty gene in the liver, leading to dangerous build-ups of ammonia in the blood, which can cause brain damage, coma, or even death if not managed Kiran Musunuru used the CRISPR base editing technique, which meant he carefully changed one tiny part of the baby's DNA without cutting it, to fix the gene causing the IS DOCTOR KIRAN MUSUNURU?Kiran Musunuru is a heart disease expert and Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a principal expert in genetic research and was born to Indian immigrant parents who settled in the US. His father, Dr Rao Musunuru, is also a renowned cardiologist who moved from Andhra Pradesh and built a distinguished medical career in the United Kiran graduated in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College in he completed a PhD in Biomedical Sciences at Rockefeller University in 2003, followed by a medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College in addition to his medical and scientific training, the 48-year-old doctor has pursued extensive interdisciplinary education to support his work at the intersection of science, public health, and earned an MPH in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2009, followed by an ML in Law from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in recently, in 2024, he completed an MRA in Regulatory Affairs from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of research focusses on the genetics of heart disease and seeks to identify genetic factors that protect against disease and use them to develop therapies to protect the entire population, according to Dr Kiran's his recent work, he has been using gene editing to create a one-shot "vaccination" against heart AND AWARDS FOR GROUNDBREAKING WORKKiran Musunuru has received numerous prestigious honours in recognition of his groundbreaking contributions to science and them is the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, presented to him at the White House by former US President Barack Obama—one of the highest honours given by the US government to early-career accolades also include the American Heart Association's Award of Meritorious Achievement, the American Philosophical Society's Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigation, the American Federation for Medical Research's Outstanding Investigator Award, and Harvard University's Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science addition to his research and teaching roles, Musunuru recently served as Editor-in-Chief of Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine, a leading peer-reviewed journal in the field, reflecting his leadership in advancing precision medicine and cardiovascular genetics. advertisement
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Gene editing cures child of rare disease in world first
A child with an extremely rare genetic disorder has become the first to be genetically edited for his disease in a breakthrough for people suffering from uncommon conditions. KJ Muldoon was born with a rare metabolic disease known as severe carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) deficiency, which causes a build-up of ammonia and can result in brain damage and organ failure. It affects fewer than one in a million people, so there is little incentive for pharmaceutical companies to find a treatment. But in a medical first, doctors at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Penn Medicine, used the genetic editing tool Crispr to correct the defect in his DNA which causes the condition. Crispr, which acts like genetic scissors to alter genetic code, is already being used for diseases such as sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia which affect hundreds of thousands of people. It is hoped the technique could be adapted to treat individuals with rare diseases for whom no medical treatments are available. 'Years and years of progress in gene editing and collaboration between researchers and clinicians made this moment possible, and while KJ is just one patient, we hope he is the first of many to benefit from a methodology that can be scaled to fit an individual patient's needs,' said Dr Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, director of the Gene Therapy for Inherited Metabolic Disorders Frontier Programme (GTIMD) at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. 'While KJ will need to be monitored carefully for the rest of his life, our initial findings are quite promising.' The personal treatment was developed in just six months and delivered via fatty nanoparticles injected into the liver to correct a faulty enzyme which causes the overproduction of ammonia. KJ spent the first months of his life in hospital, living a very restricted diet before receiving the first round of his bespoke therapy in February, when he was around seven months old. He has since had two more injections and doctors say he is now growing well and thriving and has been able to go home. Kyle Muldoon, KJ's father, said: 'We've been in the thick of this since KJ was born, and our whole world's been revolving around this little guy and his stay in the hospital. 'We're so excited to be able to finally be together at home so that KJ can be with his siblings, and we can finally take a deep breath.' Typically, patients with CPS1 deficiency are treated with a liver transplant, but they need to be old enough to handle such a major procedure. During that time, episodes of increased ammonia can put patients at risk for ongoing, lifelong brain damage or even prove fatal. Dr Kiran Musunuru, professor for translational research in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, said: 'We want each and every patient to have the potential to experience the same results we saw in this first patient, and we hope that other academic investigators will replicate this method for many rare diseases and give many patients a fair shot at living a healthy life. 'The promise of gene therapy that we've heard about for decades is coming to fruition, and it's going to utterly transform the way we approach medicine.' Commenting on the research, Dr Alena Pance, senior lecturer in genetics at the University of Hertfordshire, said: 'Crispr-based therapy has been used to correct genetic diseases before. The approach in the paper is applicable to this specific form of the disease. 'The approach is applicable to any disease caused by a single nucleotide change, however more often than not, diseases are caused by a variety of variants so perhaps more general strategies could be more effective than very precise ones.' The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
World's First Patient Treated with Personalized CRISPR Gene Editing Therapy at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Landmark Study from CHOP and Penn Medicine Showcases the Power of Customized Gene Editing Therapy to Treat Patient with Rare Metabolic Disease PHILADELPHIA and NEW ORLEANS, May 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In a historic medical breakthrough, a child diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder has been successfully treated with a customized CRISPR gene editing therapy by a team at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Penn Medicine. The infant, KJ, was born with a rare metabolic disease known as severe carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) deficiency. After spending the first several months of his life in the hospital, on a very restrictive diet, KJ received the first dose of his bespoke therapy in February 2025 between six and seven months of age. The treatment was administered safely, and he is now growing well and thriving. The case is detailed today in a study published by The New England Journal of Medicine and was presented at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Annual Meeting in New Orleans. This landmark finding could provide a pathway for gene editing technology to be successfully adapted to treat individuals with rare diseases for whom no medical treatments are available. "Years and years of progress in gene editing and collaboration between researchers and clinicians made this moment possible, and while KJ is just one patient, we hope he is the first of many to benefit from a methodology that can be scaled to fit an individual patient's needs," said Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, MD, PhD, director of the Gene Therapy for Inherited Metabolic Disorders Frontier Program (GTIMD) at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-based gene editing can precisely correct disease-causing variants in the human genome. Gene editing tools are incredibly complex and nuanced, and up to this point, researchers have built them to target more common diseases that affect tens or hundreds of thousands of patients, such as the two diseases for which there currently are U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies, sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. However, relatively few diseases benefit from a "one-size-fits-all" gene editing approach since so many disease-causing variants exist. Even as the field advances, many patients with rare genetic diseases – collectively impacting millions of patients worldwide – have been left behind. A Collaborative Effort Ahrens-Nicklas and Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD, the Barry J. Gertz Professor for Translational Research in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, who are co-corresponding authors on the published report, began collaborating to study the feasibility of creating customized gene editing therapies for individual patients in 2023, building upon many years of research into rare metabolic disorders, as well as the feasibility of gene editing to treat patients. Both are members of the NIH funded Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium, which supports collaborative genome editing research. Ahrens-Nicklas and Musunuru decided to focus on urea cycle disorders. During the normal breakdown of proteins in the body, ammonia is naturally produced. Typically, our bodies know to convert the ammonia to urea and then excrete that urea through urination. However, a child with a urea cycle disorder lacks an enzyme in the liver needed to convert ammonia to urea. Ammonia then builds up to a toxic level, which can cause organ damage, particularly in the brain and the liver. After years of preclinical research with similar disease-causing variants, Ahrens-Nicklas and Musunuru targeted KJ's specific variant of CPS1, identified soon after his birth. Within six months, their team designed and manufactured a base editing therapy delivered via lipid nanoparticles to the liver in order to correct KJ's faulty enzyme. In late February 2025, KJ received his first infusion of this experimental therapy, and since then, he has received follow-up doses in March and April 2025. In the newly published New England Journal of Medicine paper, the researchers, along with their academic and industry collaborators, describe the customized CRISPR gene editing therapy that was rigorously yet speedily developed for administration to KJ. As of April 2025, KJ had received three doses of the therapy with no serious side effects. In the short time since treatment, he has tolerated increased dietary protein and needed less nitrogen scavenger medication. He also has been able to recover from certain typical childhood illnesses like rhinovirus without ammonia building up in his body. Longer follow-up is needed to fully evaluate the benefits of the therapy. "While KJ will need to be monitored carefully for the rest of his life, our initial findings are quite promising," Ahrens-Nicklas said. "We want each and every patient to have the potential to experience the same results we saw in this first patient, and we hope that other academic investigators will replicate this method for many rare diseases and give many patients a fair shot at living a healthy life," Musunuru said. "The promise of gene therapy that we've heard about for decades is coming to fruition, and it's going to utterly transform the way we approach medicine." A Future for KJ Typically, patients with CPS1 deficiency, like KJ, are treated with a liver transplant. However, for patients to receive a liver transplant, they need to be medically stable and old enough to handle such a major procedure. During that time, episodes of increased ammonia can put patients at risk for ongoing, lifelong neurologic damage or even prove fatal. Because of these threats to lifelong health, the researchers knew that finding new ways to treat patients who are too young and small to receive liver transplants would be lifechanging for families whose children faced this disorder. "We would do anything for our kids, so with KJ, we wanted to figure out how we were going to support him and how we were going to get him to the point where he can do all the things a normal kid should be able to do," his mother, Nicole Muldoon, said. "We thought it was our responsibility to help our child, so when the doctors came to us with their idea, we put our trust in them in the hopes that it could help not just KJ but other families in our position." "We've been in the thick of this since KJ was born, and our whole world's been revolving around this little guy and his stay in the hospital," his father, Kyle Muldoon, said. "We're so excited to be able to finally be together at home so that KJ can be with his siblings, and we can finally take a deep breath." This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health Somatic Cell Genome Editing Program (U01TR005355, U19NS132301), as well as additional National Institutes of Health grants (R35HL145203, U19NS132303, DP2CA281401, P01HL142494). In-kind contributions were made by Acuitas Therapeutics, Integrated DNA Technologies, Aldevron, and Danaher Corporation. Additional funding was provided by the CHOP Research Institute's Gene Therapy for Inherited Metabolic Disorders Frontier Program. Musunuru et al, "Patient-Specific In Vivo Gene Editing to Treat a Rare Genetic Disease." N Engl J Med. Online May 15, 2025. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2504747. About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: A non-profit, charitable organization, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, the hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. The institution has a well-established history of providing advanced pediatric care close to home through its CHOP Care Network, which includes more than 50 primary care practices, specialty care and surgical centers, urgent care centers, and community hospital alliances throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as the Middleman Family Pavilion and its dedicated pediatric emergency department in King of Prussia. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought Children's Hospital of Philadelphia recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit About Penn Medicine Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) and Penn's Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school. The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $580 million awarded in the 2023 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of "firsts," Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries that have shaped modern medicine, including CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines. The University of Pennsylvania Health System cares for patients in facilities and their homes stretching from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. UPHS facilities include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Doylestown Health, Lancaster General Health, Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation's first hospital, chartered in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Penn Medicine at Home, GSPP Rehabilitation, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others. Penn Medicine is an $11.9 billion enterprise powered by nearly 49,000 talented faculty and staff. Contact: Ben LeachChildren's Hospital of Philadelphia(609) 634-7906Leachb@ Matt ToalPerelman School of MedicinePenn View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time of India
23-04-2025
- Health
- Time of India
COVID infection in children puts them at a higher risk for THESE serious illnesses
We might have contained the COVID-19 pandemic, but the repercussions haven't subsided yet. COVID has been harsh on young children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised individuals. Now, a recent study has found that children and adolescents who contracted COVID-19 may face an increased risk of serious long-term health problems. The study, led by investigators at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, found that long COVID can result in increased risk for a variety of serious health problems for young people. These include a higher risk of kidney, gut, and cardiovascular system illnesses. The findings were published in Nature Communications . 'While most public attention has focused on the acute phase of COVID-19 , our findings reveal children face significant long-term health risks that clinicians need to monitor,' senior author Yong Chen, PhD, a professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, said in a statement. A study published in JAMA Network Open looked at kidney function in 1.9 million patients under 21. The researchers found that young patients with positive SARS-CoV-2 tests had a 17% higher risk of developing early-stage chronic kidney disease and a 35% higher risk of advanced chronic kidney disease (stage 3 or higher). This could occur from one month to two years after infection. The study suggested that people with pre-existing chronic kidney disease, who had a positive test for COVID, had a 15 percent higher risk of developing any of several other kidney-related adverse outcomes, including a major decline in kidney filtration rate, dialysis, or kidney transplant. Children and adolescents who suffered an acute kidney injury during infection had a 29% higher risk of kidney issues within three to six months compared to those without such injury. Another study published in JAMA Network Open looked at the gastrointestinal problems such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, and irritable bowel syndrome in 1,576,933 children and adolescents. They found that the children tested positive for COVID had a 25% increased risk of experiencing GI symptoms in the months following infection, and a 28% increased risk of persistent symptoms up to two years post-infection. A separate study examined post-acute cardiovascular problems in 1,213,322 pediatric patients. The studies also confirmed that the young individuals who were infected had significantly higher risks of developing one or more cardiovascular conditions, including arrhythmias, heart inflammation, chest pain, palpitations, and hypertension, compared to those with negative tests. These risks were elevated regardless of whether the patient had a congenital heart defect (CHD). Also, among children without congenital heart defects, those infected with SARS-CoV-2 had nearly triple the risk of developing heart inflammation compared to their uninfected peers. TOI Medithon 6: Diabetes Demystified | Live Well with Expert Insights The health effects of COVID infection also differed based on race and ethnicity. They evaluvated the data from 225,723 children and adolescents, comparing AAPIs, non-Hispanic Blacks, and Hispanics, to non-Hispanic Whites. Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) children and adolescents, had slightly higher rates of developing any long-COVID outcomes in the post-acute phase after severe or non-severe COVID, compared to non-Hispanic Whites. The Hispanic patients had a greater risk of hair loss after severe COVID, while non-Hispanic Black patients had a slightly lower risk of long-COVID skin symptoms after severe COVID. 'Overall, these findings underscore the fact that clinicians need to monitor pediatric patients for long COVID signs and symptoms, and need to be prepared to treat these conditions', Chen said.
