Federal Minister Warken visits specialised outpatient clinic for children and adolescents in Dresden

On 13 March 2026, Federal Minister of Health Nina Warken visited the specialised outpatient clinic for post-acute infection and vaccination syndromes (PAIVS) in children and adolescents at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden (UKD). There she informed herself among other things about the “PEDNET Long COVID” project, a network of 65 clinics and research institutes that receives 41 million euros as part of the Federal Ministry of Health’s funding priority “Pilot schemes on care for children and adolescents with Long COVID and conditions with similar causes or manifestations”. The project investigates and provides multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral healthcare services with a good regional fit to enable medical care that is tailored to the individual needs of the children and adolescents living with these conditions.

Minister Warken met with the clinic and project managers, doctors and nurses, hearing among other things about the day-to-day work of staff and the approaches used to treat the paediatric patients. Children and adolescents affected as well as their families shared accounts of their daily lives and what they do to cope with the condition.

The visit took place within the context of the “Alliance for Post-Infectious Diseases: Long COVID and ME/CFS” launched in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFTR). The aim of this Alliance is to build an even closer network of researchers and to address society as a whole.