Europe: New inflammatory syndrome linked with COVID-19 affects 230 children, 2 dead

At least 230 children have been infected and 2 killed so far from new life-threatening inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 in Europe, according to Swedish-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report. The two fatalities occurred at one each in Britain and France. The rare syndrome in children feared to be linked with COVID-19 has raised fears about the health safety of the kids worldwide, as per ECDC. 

With symptoms similar to toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, this rare syndrome is known as a paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS). It reportedly causes fever, rashes, swollen glands and, in severe cases, heart inflammation in kids. WHO issued a preliminary definition of the syndrome, that, in an unusual development, also appeared in children who did not test positive for COVID-19. The rare syndrome caused the patients to experience like their blood vessels are “on fire” that can even lead to rare complications in the body, WHO warned. 

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WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted saying that the clinicians had to remain alert to the rare syndrome. He added, clinicians worldwide that work with national authorities and WHO had to research and better understand this syndrome in children.

17 children admitted to a Paris hospital

Earlier, French researchers reported Kawasaki disease-like symptoms in 17 children admitted to a Paris hospital between April 27 and May 7, as per media reports. France's health minister Olivier Veran was quoted as saying that all the paediatricians and critical care medical workers are trying to establish whether the syndrome was linked with COVID-19. And while the data shows that there wasn’t significant spike and children were not overall at risk of the infection, research into the disease is being carried out. According to official data released earlier this month, only 0.4 per cent of children were hospitalized due to the syndrome, media reports confirmed.   

Physician at Cohen Children's Medical Centre in New York, Sunil Sood, was quoted saying that only three or four cases came up to him and his colleagues in past three weeks. He added that the syndrome was witnessed in slightly older kids, than the usual age for the children that get ill with the Kawasaki disease. A disease that primarily impacts the kids, Kawasaki affects children from the age group one to five, Sood reportedly said. US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported more than 100 such cases in the state of New York and 3 deaths so far.

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(Image Credit: AP)