Latex: acro prints abbreviations list out of order when special characters are involved

Question

I am using the acro package in Latex, and would like my list of abbreviations to print alphabetically (the default usage of \printacronyms). However, one of my abbreviations is in italics, and acro appears to be reading the leading \ of \textit and placing this entry out of alphabetical order. Is there a way to place this entry in the appropriate location in the list?

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{acro}
\DeclareAcronym{pfpr}{
  short=\textit{PfPR\textsubscript{2-10}},
  long=\textit{Plasmodium falciparum} parasite rate among 2-10 year olds,
}
\DeclareAcronym{covid}{
  short=COVID,
  long=Coronavirus disease,
}
\DeclareAcronym{par}{
  short=PAR,
  long=Population at Risk,
}
\begin{document}
\printacronyms
\section{Main Text}
\ac{covid}, \ac{par}, \ac{pfpr}
\end{document}

Answer 1

As I learned from this post, the solution is to use the sort tag in \DeclareAcronym, like so:

\DeclareAcronym{pfpr}{
  short=\textit{PfPR\textsubscript{2-10}},
  sort=pfpr,
  long=\textit{Plasmodium falciparum} parasite rate among 2-10 year olds,
}