Eight and nine-year-old Victorian kids, scores of teens, with long Covid amid frightening illness rise

Victoria is hurtling towards a generation of young people off work because of long Covid — some eligible for disability pension and NDIS support packages — with potentially devastating consequences for the health system, employers and economy.

Victoria is hurtling towards a generation of young people unable to work and taking long periods of sick leave due to long Covid, with potentially devastating consequences for the state’s health system, employers and the economy.

The Herald Sun can reveal children as young as eight are being diagnosed with the debilitating multi-organ illness, that the Victorian Department of Health on its official website says is striking down up to 10 per cent of those who have had Covid one or more times.

However, new research has shown the percentage of Australians in one state going on to develop long Covid after an initial acute infection is actually much higher than that, at 18.2 per cent.

Scores of young Victorians are being diagnosed with long Covid. Picture: Wayne Taylor

The Australian Department of Social Services told the Herald Sun some long Covid sufferers could potentially meet the eligibility criteria for receiving a Disability Support Pension (DSP) and/or assistance through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

“No disability arising from a particular medical condition or diagnosis is specifically excluded from access to the NDIS but the disability needs to meet the access criteria outlined in the NDIS Act,” a spokeswoman said, adding pensions were available to people with impairments that left them unable to work for long periods.

“Eligibility for DSP is based on functional impairment and ability to work, not on diagnosis or specific medical condition alone. A person with long Covid may meet the eligibility requirements for DSP depending on their individual circumstances,” she said.

The pensions are income support payments for people with physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairments who are unable to work for 15 or more hours per week, for at least two years.

Long Covid can follow one or more acute Covid infections.

As eligibility for the NDIS and DSP derive their authority from two separate legislative acts — with the NDIS providing funding directly for supports and services and the DSP providing social security payments — some long Covid sufferers could potentially receive both.

However, as each have their own eligibility criteria, qualifying for one does not necessarily mean automatic qualification for the other.

La Trobe University disease expert Dr Sarah Annesley told the Herald Sun late last year it could take some Victorians “years” to recover from long Covid, while others may never fully regain their former strength.

“There are big impacts there, if they don’t recover, or take a long time to recover … some people will have this now forever. That’s like decades of having an illness,” she said.

Geelong Long Covid Clinic director Dr Jenny Huang — who is also a GP at the region’s Banksia Medical Centre — told the Herald Sun this week she was increasingly diagnosing the syndrome in teenagers and had also “seen eight and nine-year-olds” with it.

“A lot of patients — I would say half and half — are 20 to 30ish, and then in the over 50s (age group),” Dr Huang said.

According to the Victorian health department, the condition — that can cause extreme fatigue and pain — is most commonly diagnosed in Victorians aged over 35.

Dr Huang said it was currently falling largely to patients and their employers to negotiate extended periods of sick leave or flexible working arrangements.

Some long Covid patients — many of whom had been fit, healthy high achievers with high-flying careers — needed long periods of rehabilitation with allied health professionals to get back to work and their former routines, Dr Huang said.

While there was not a definitive test to diagnose the syndrome, there were symptoms that pointed to someone having it and Covid researchers had found medical markers in people with the condition, she said.

It comes after Queensland’s top health official Dr John Gerrard controversially declared there was nothing “unique and exceptional” about Covid’s long term symptoms, with a new study he was lead author on calling for an end to use of the term.

Dr Gerrard said a diagnosis of long Covid had the potential to cause unnecessary fear and hypervigilance, that could impede recovery.

“In health systems with highly vaccinated populations, long Covid may have appeared to be a distinct and severe illness because of high volumes of Covid-19 cases during the pandemic. However, we found that the rates of ongoing symptoms and functional impairment are indistinguishable from other post-viral illnesses,” he said recently.

“Furthermore, we believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘long Covid’. They wrongly imply there is something unique and exceptional about longer-term symptoms associated with this virus.”

Children as young as eight are being diagnosed with long Covid.

His comments were slammed by many other doctors and scientists, but supported by some in the medical community.

Dr Huang said long Covid was certainly real, and causing pain, disability and distress for many Victorians.

“It is important to recognise long Covid is a medical condition with pathophysiological processes going on,” she said.

“Every patient is unique … although the condition may share many similarities with other conditions like POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) it is important to highlight the need to care for these patients and not to downplay or dismiss their suffering from these complex medical conditions that have resulted.”

Dr Huang called for more evidence based research into long Covid and government funding and support for sufferers.

“Primary health care providers and allied health professionals need the investment support from our leaders to help these patients get on the appropriate management services and treatments. Especially as there is no public funding for secondary care services to do so, despite their advocacy to also take supporting these patients seriously,” she said.

A major study published in the prestigious Nature Journal found that anosmia (loss of smell), hair loss, sneezing, ejaculation difficulty, reduced libido, shortness of breath when resting, fatigue, chest pain and a hoarse voice were among the most common symptoms leading to long Covid.

Melbourne woman, Alicia, last year shared her long Covid horror story.

Dr Annesley said having Covid multiple times, or one very bad infection, increased the risk of developing long Covid, which she described as “a brain fog, like having a hangover, the flu and jet lag all at once”.

Dr Annesley said new data published by the Victorian Agency for Health Information had revealed 14 per cent of people in the state who had suffered a Covid infection had gone on to develop the illness, significantly higher than the up to 10 per cent quoted by the government.

While the likelihood of developing the disease was greater for people who had been very sick with Covid initially, “there is still like a large amount of people that have had a mild infection and are developing long Covid”, Dr Annesley, who is studying the illness, said.

A new Western Australian medical study shows 18.2 per cent of people had symptoms consistent with long Covid 90 days after infection with Omicron, with 38.7 per cent of those seeking medical care “two to three months after their acute (Covid) infection”.

The research results have caused shockwaves as Western Australia was a highly vaccinated population, not broadly exposed to Covid.