COVID-19: Recovered Kids In New York Now Suffering From New Inflammatory Syndrome Similar To ‘Kawasaki Disease’ Which Attacks Blood Vessels, Kidney, Heart

New York City top health official has said an inflammatory syndrome which stems from coronavirus and is being exhibited by children who have recovered from the virus, is causing heart and kidney failure.

This new finding comes few days after a British study showed that coronavirus is ‘manifesting’ as a deadly new inflammatory syndrome in some children.

The new study has now shown that the inflammatory syndrome attacks the heart and kidney in children.

Speaking on the cause of the heart and kidney failure, US Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot at a news briefing on Monday said;

This is something that is incredibly concerning. Pediatricians and health officials have seen laboratory signs of inflammation and a single or multiorgan indication of failure. Meaning that your kidneys are not working, they’re going into shock, your heart is giving out.

In the early period of the coronavirus outbreak, researchers and infectious disease experts said the virus appeared to be sparing children while hitting only the elderly and those with underlying health conditions harder.

However, few months into the worldwide spread, researchers discovered that children can get infected and die from the virus, even without underlying conditions that tend to worsen symptoms.

Scientists revealed that the inflammation may be part of a delayed immune response to the coronavirus infection in children.

Most kids infected report mild respiratory symptoms, namely fever, dry cough and fatigue. However, some children can become seriously ill, developing the inflammatory syndrome similar to a disease known as Kawasaki disease.

The disease, is an illness that is mostly common in young children and causes high fever and swelling in blood vessels. Children may also develop a rash and experience abdominal pain and vomiting.

Barbot said;

Most of the kids who have developed the inflammatory syndrome are between 5 and 9 years old.

However, the health commissioner said while this syndrome is Kawasaki-like, “it’s really beyond that. We’re calling it pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome.”

She explained that the term is a “descriptive diagnosis” and health officials are still “learning about the way in which Covid-19 is affecting children.”

According to Barbot, prevention and early diagnosis are the most important factors in treating it.

She added that doctors are seeing the new inflammatory syndrome crop up after a child recovers from the coronavirus, saying;

If you find it early and you treat it early, the long-term consequences for children are pretty negligible.

The health commissioner urged parents to get their children tested for Covid-19 antibodies even if they test negative for the virus as some may exhibit symptoms of Kawasaki disease, which includes a persistent and high fever, rash, sore throat and swollen hands or feet.

Addressing the new syndrome, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, revealed that about 100 children are now suffering from the potentially deadly inflammation of the blood vessels believed to be related to the coronavirus disease.

Kawasaki disease, a rare illness with just 20,000 cases recorded annually in the US, can be managed with medications like aspirin.

Therefore, scientists have said it is too early to tell how big a concern the disease might become, but research is still ongoing.

These new findings indicate that scientists are starting to unravel and understand more about the novel coronavirus, an unprecedented pandemic like no other in recent years.