{"id":30862,"date":"2020-05-14T23:21:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T23:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/virusreports.net\/expect-more-cases-of-strange-coronavirus-syndrome-in-kids-doctors-warn-2\/"},"modified":"2020-05-14T23:21:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T23:21:15","slug":"expect-more-cases-of-strange-coronavirus-syndrome-in-kids-doctors-warn-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virusreports.net\/expect-more-cases-of-strange-coronavirus-syndrome-in-kids-doctors-warn-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Expect more cases of strange coronavirus syndrome in kids, doctors warn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Parents, hospitals and clinics should expect to see more cases of a mystifying condition that seems to be affecting children after a bout with COVID-19, doctors said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The condition, called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, appears to be a post-viral syndrome, said Dr. Jeffrey Burns, a critical care specialist at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital who has been coordinating a global group of doctors who compare notes on the condition.<\/p>\n

Doctors are investigating cases in at least 150 children, most of them in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis multisystem inflammatory syndrome is not directly caused by the virus,\u201d Burns said \u201cThe leading hypothesis is that it is due to the immune response of the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Symptoms include persistent fever, inflammation and poor function in organs such as the kidneys or heart. Children may also show evidence of blood vessel inflammation, such as red eyes, a bright red tongue and cracked lips, said Dr. Moshe Arditi, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cCardiovascular collapse is very serious and the heart is impacted and either stop speeding or can\u2019t pump blood throughout the body and they create what\u2019s called a shock syndrome,” said Dr. Jeffrey Goldhagen, a Jacksonville pediatrician. “The other example is toxic shock where attractive body circulation is insufficient to maintain the integrity of the organs.\u201d<\/p>\n

British doctors first sounded the alert about the syndrome last month. The Royal College of Paediatrics said Thursday that between 75 and 100 children in Britain had been affected. Italian doctors have also reported the syndrome.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said it’s a complicated disorder.<\/p>\n

“It’s a spectrum of disorders, and so in some cases you’ll have the individual have coronary artery involvement. Sometimes they don’t,” Ezike told a news conference.<\/p>\n

A delayed response to infection<\/b><\/p>\n

Not all of the affected children have tested positive for the coronavirus, but reports from Europe and from several cities in the United States show a link.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to be delayed responses to COVID infections in these kids,\u201d Arditi said.<\/p>\n

Burns believes more cases will turn up as COVID-19 affects more people. It\u2019s a rare condition, but rare consequences of viral infections are seen more often when millions of people are infected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can expect that each of the epicenters will see clusters of these emerging roughly four to six weeks later,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes sense that it emerged in New York first because New York had the largest and most severe outbreak (of COVID-19), followed by New Jersey and, unfortunately, Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most children are not seriously affected by the syndrome, Burns said. Most don’t even need treatment in the intensive care unit, he said, although a very few have died. “We do have proven treatments that we can use and are using,” he said. They include blood thinners and immune modulators.<\/p>\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing a Health Alert Network notification to send to doctors across the country, a CDC spokesman said. Burns said the World Health Organization is also working to define the syndrome and alert doctors so they will know what to look for and how to treat it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new entity has some similarities to Kawasaki disease,\u201d Arditi said. \u201cBut there are a lot more features that are consistent with toxic shock syndrome, such as multi-organ system involvement and severe abdominal involvement with diarrhea,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

It will be important to study, because the response could help explain why children are so much less likely to be severely affected by COVID-19 than adults are, said Burns.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding the child\u2019s immune response could be a key to vaccine development and could also be a key to therapy for adults to understand why children are able to fight (COVID-19) off so well,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n

Doctors find suspected cases in 17 states<\/b><\/p>\n

Some state health departments said that they are waiting for the CDC alert. \u201cWe are working with the CDC on a case definition and are looking into possible cases, but won\u2019t have more until the CDC finalizes its definition,\u201d a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t believe this syndrome is very common, but several cases have been reported elsewhere in association with COVID-19,\u201d said Dr. Paul Cieslak, medical director for infectious diseases and immunizations at the Oregon Health Authority Public Health Division. \u201cThis syndrome appears to be an uncommon but serious complication of COVID-19 in children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Mounds, chief of staff for the Connecticut governor’s office, said the syndrome would be trackable illness in the state. The Department of Public Health “sent this out to all the Connecticut pediatric health systems to make sure that they are reporting if these cases are occurring in their facilities, so we can be able to track it and handle it accordingly,” Mounds said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

States reporting cases include:<\/p>\n