CDC Issues Warning Over Mystery COVID-Related Inflammatory Syndrome In Children

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health warning to doctors on a rare inflammatory symptoms on children that can be potentially linked to COVID-19.
• The mysterious COVID-related inflammatory syndrome has so far infected 110 children and killed 3 of them in New York.
• New Jersey has about 17 cases of the “multisystem inflammatory syndrome”; California has six; while other states including Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Washington, have reported small figures of cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued a health warning to all physicians on the new but rare deadly disease that may linked to the novel COVID-19 among children. The CDC issued a health alert after 110 children in New York contracted the mysterious COVID-related inflammatory syndrome and three of them have so far died from the said disease.

The illness, which the CDC called as “multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children” or MIS-C, has also been reported in other United States state provinces such as New Jersey with 17 cases; California with 6 cases; and other states like Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Washington with reported small number of incidents.

“There is limited information currently available about risk factors, pathogenesis, clinical course, and treatment for MIS-C,” CDC said in its health warning.

The disease caused by the novel COVID-19, and an inflammatory syndrome that has signs that overlap with “toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease” — a rare inflammatory syndrome normally appeared on children under the age of 5. However, some reports stated that hospitals were receiving children with the mysterious illness even as old as 21 years old.

The CDC’s health alert also provided guidance for MIS-C diagnosis. The criteria, which they provided, stated that a child or teenager with a fever of at least 100.4 degrees for 24 hours, a proof of inflammation in the body, and complication in at least two organs such as heart, kidneys, or the lungs, are considered suffering for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children or MIS-C.

“The CDC is requesting healthcare providers report suspected cases to public health authorities to better characterize this newly recognized condition in the pediatric population,” the CDC also wrote.

Beaumont Hospital chief pediatric infectious disease Dr. Baishara Freij advise parents not to panic but have their child evaluated immediately. He said, early diagnosis and intervention is the best way to reverse the illness. He then suggested the parents to be “vigilant” in monitoring their child’s health and call a pediatrician or other health care provider once symptoms like fever persist.

Mother of a child recovering from MIS-C shared what parents should know about the illness.

Hannah Peck, who has a 7-year-old son Levi, told all parents that if their children are sick, they should bring their children to the hospital immediately. She said in an interview with Good Morning America news station, if she delayed bringing her son’s condition he may not survive.

“The big thing is if your kid is sick, get them in right away and get them checked out, I feel like if I hadn’t gotten him in or if the doctor had said it was just a stomach bug and to go home, we would be in a very different position right now,” Peck said.

On May 2, Levi who is a healthy child, woke up vomiting with extreme high fever, Peck shared. As his symptoms continued the whole day, Peck then brought Levi to the pediatrician, who advised her to immediately bring her son to the hospital.

Peck said Levi’s eyes were turning red and his lips were also getting chapped and red. She recalled her doctor told her that Levi is severely dehydrated and that he might be suffering Kawasaki-life syndrome that children were now acquiring.

Doctors said that the Kawasaki-like-symptoms may reveal days or weeks after a child was exposed to COVID-19, and may occur in Children who were asymptomatic to the diseases.

Peck said Levi tested negative three times for COVID-19 during his hospital confinement. However he tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, meaning “he was exposed to the disease”.

Peck, who is a single mother, said she has not idea how Levi contracted the COVID-19. She said neither she nor her mother, who lives with them, has had any COVID-19 symptoms or who have exposed to someone who had the virus. The doctors told her that Peck and her other may have the virus and were asymptomatic.

Since the virus broke out, Peck said that she stopped working and Levi also stopped attending school. They observed the stay-at-home procedure and the only time she leave home when she will grab groceries at a curbside location.

During his confinement at the Beaumont Hospital at Royal Oak, Michigan, Levi also suffered from severe abdominal pain and pneumonia in his both lungs, which resulting to placing him on oxygen in the ICU. He was discharge on May 12 or one week after his confinement.

Freij said that all patients with MIS-C in their hospital were tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies.