You have probably heard of COVID-19 – a virus that can make some adults very poorly.

Most children who get COVID-19 are not very poorly. However, a large number of children who got COVID-19 still have symptoms like headaches or feeling tired, long after they had COVID-19. People call this long-COVID.

Other infections can also cause children to feel poorly weeks later.

About our study

Our study is called “ELUCIDate”, and will use information that has been collected from two surveys of school children in England, alongside information on things like GP and hospital visits for the children in the surveys. It is possible that you took part in one of these surveys.

Later on, we will use health information for all children in England. Nobody will be able to be identified by the study researchers.

What we aim to find out

We will use the information to better understand long-term effects of infections including long-COVID.

Our study will help doctors to know how best to help children who remain poorly weeks after they had an infection.

We will be able to see which groups of children are more likely to get long-term effects of infections including long-COVID, like older children, or children who were already poorly.

In this way, our study will be able to help improve the health of children.

Help and support

If you are seeking information about long-COVID, the Your COVID Recovery website, produced by the NHS, has very good information and advice.