Multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) shares symptoms with Kawasaki disease, including fever, skin rashes, swollen glands, and, in severe cases, inflammation of the heart.
By:
Reuters
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Nearly 300 cases of children and adolescents with a rare and life-threatening syndrome associated with the new coronavirus have been identified in the United States in two studies.
The findings, published this Monday, June 29 in The New England Journal of Medicine, are given after several reports of the syndrome among patients with covid-19 in France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain.
Multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) shares symptoms with Kawasaki disease, including fever, skin rashes, swollen glands, and, in severe cases, inflammation of the heart.
A consistent picture of the syndrome is emerging two to four weeks after coronavirus infection, said Michael Levin, professor of pediatrics and international child health at Imperial College London, in an editorial accompanying the study.
The syndrome affects 2 out of 100,000 young people, defined as under 21, out of 322 out of 100,000 in that group who have covid-19, he wrote.
While the studies identified about 300 cases in the United States, Levin noted that more than 1,000 cases have been reported worldwide. He added that there has been a relatively high proportion among black, Hispanic or South Asian people.
The first study, led by Boston Children’s Hospital, found 186 cases of MIS-C in 26 states in the United States. Four out of five required intensive care and one out of five required mechanical ventilation. Four patients died.
The second study, which looked at patients in New York and was conducted by the state health department, found another 95 confirmed cases, of which four out of five needed to be admitted to the intensive care unit. Two patients died.
It is not clear why MIS-C develops in some children and adolescents and not in others.
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