Doctors in the US say parents, hospitals and clinics should expect more cases of a mysterious condition that seems to be affecting children after a bout of covid-19. The condition, called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, appears to be a post-viral syndrome according to the doctors.
Doctors in the US are investigating cases in at least 150 children, most of them in New York withhospitals and clinics in at least 17 states and Washington, DC reported to be checking into suspected cases.
Dr Jeffries Burns, a critical care specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital who has been coordinating a global group of doctors who are studying the disease said the condition is not caused by covid-19.
“This multisystem inflammatory syndrome is not directly caused by the virus. The leading hypothesis is that it is due to the immune response of the patient.”
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, called it a complicated disorder.
“It’s a spectrum of disorders, and so in some cases you’ll have the individual have coronary artery involvement. Sometimes they don’t,” he told a news conference.
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, according toDr. Moshe Arditi, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
A new peer-reviewed study, published in the medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday, also found a rise in the number of cases of the syndrome in the Bergamo province of Italy shortly after the coronavirus pandemic spread to the region.
The condition is believed to be a delayed response to Covid-19.
