Symptoms such as gastrointestinal disorders or even blood poisoning have been observed by German doctors in children infected with the Omicron variant. “These children are very sick, they need an infusion because they do not eat or drink, but they do not have respiratory problems”, explains Gerd Horneff, medical director of the French hospital Saint -Augustin, to our colleagues from Euronews.
A phenomenon observed in Belgium? “Gastrointestinal symptoms can be a sign of Covid in children, that was already known before”, answers Professor Dimitri Van der Linden, pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Saint-Luc university clinics, to our colleagues from La Libre . However, he indicates that it is difficult to conclude at this stage that the Omicron variant causes this symptom more than the other variants.
“But our services are not overflowing with children with sepsis and presenting with severe gastroenteritis linked to Covid, we do not have these effects at all”, he concludes.