WHO says study of possible link between Covid-19 and Kawasaki disease in children
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Posted on 2020-05-15 | The Nouvelliste
The WHO said on Friday studying a possible link between Covid-19 disease and Kawasaki disease, an inflammatory syndrome affecting children and a similar form of which caused the first death in France.
“Initial hypotheses indicate that this syndrome could be linked to Covid-19 (…). We call on all clinicians around the world to work with their national authorities and the WHO to be alert and better understand this syndrome in children, “said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a virtual press conference in Geneva.
“It is crucial to characterize this clinical syndrome precisely and urgently, to understand its causality and to describe treatment protocols,” he added.
WHO and its global network of clinicians has developed a preliminary definition and made available to doctors a reporting form for any suspected case of Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SRIS).
Cases worldwide are rare and the role of the new coronavirus in the development of infection remains unknown, said Michael Ryan, head of emergency programs at WHO.
“We do not know if it is the virus that attacks the cells or if it is the excessive immune response” that causes the inflammation, as is the case with Ebola fever, he said.
The disease has intrigued health authorities in several countries for two weeks, even though children are very little affected by the severe forms of Covid-19.
After an initial alert in the United Kingdom in late April, similar cases have been reported in New York, Italy or Spain. Deaths are extremely rare, with a five-year-old child in New York and a 14-year-old adolescent in London.
A first fatal case was revealed Friday in France.
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