Young people who may have multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, a troubling complication of Covid-19 infection, need immediate attention and will probably need to be hospitalized, doctors said Tuesday.
Symptoms do not look like the classic symptoms of coronavirus and may mostly include stomach pain and vomiting, along with fever and perhaps a rash, the experts told other doctors on a briefing organized by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s becoming clear that many of the children with the new syndrome have damage to their hearts and need immediate treatment, the experts told the briefing. And they believe it’s increasingly clear that Covid-19 is involved, even though many of the children test negative for the virus and never seemed to have had symptoms of infection.
The syndrome appears to develop two to six weeks after infection with Covid-19 and affects children who were perfectly healthy beforehand. The CDC issued a health alert last week warning pediatricians to be on the lookout, and at least 18 states plus Washington, DC have reported they are investigating possible cases.
“A striking finding here – alarming – is that in this group, about half the children already had coronary artery abnormalities,” Dr. James Schneider, who heads pediatric critical care at Northwell Health in New York, told the briefing. Because the children were previously healthy, he thinks the abnormalities were caused by MIS-C, possibly as a result of a delayed immune response to the coronavirus.
“Any child at home who has fever, abdominal pain or symptoms such as rash and (conjunctivitis) should be seen by a pediatrician right away,” he advised. “I think we need to have a low threshold for evaluation.”
14-year-old describes his bout with inflammatory syndrome linked to coronavirus: