COVID-linked syndrome in children is growing in US; it can lead to heart dysfunction

Doctors all across the United States have been observing a striking increase in the number of young people with Covid-linked syndrome, known as the Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children or MIS-C. According to a report by The New York Times, doctors said that more patients are now even sicker than during the first wave of cases. During the first wave at National Hospital in Washington, about half the patients needed treatment in the intensive care unit, however, now the number has surged by 80 to 90 per cent. 

A new syndrome 

The reason behind the increase remains unclear. However, the surge is followed by an overall spike of Covid cases in the United States, which came after the holiday season. No evidence links it with the recent coronavirus variants. Also, it is too early to study the impact of variants on the syndrome, said the experts. 

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As per the data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was complete only through mid-December, there are a total of 2,060 cases in 48 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, including 30 deaths. The median age remains 9. Also, infants to 20-year-olds have been afflicted. There has been a certain increase since mid-October. Dr Jean Ballweg, medical director of a pediatric heart transplant and advanced heart failure at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha said that the doctors are very uncertain about what will happen in the long term. 

Symptoms of the syndrome can include fever, rash, red eyes or gastrointestinal problems. However, these can further lead to heart dysfunction, including cardiogenic shock, in which the heart cannot squeeze enough to pump blood sufficiently. Some patients also develop cardiomyopathy, which affects the heart muscle and leads to an abnormal rhythm. As per Dr. Ballweg, one 15-year-old needed a procedure that functioned as a temporary pacemaker. 

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As per the report, 69 per cent of reported cases have affected Latino or Black young people. Experts believe that this comes from socioeconomic and other factors that have disproportionately exposed these communities to the virus. Dr. Ballweg said that the Omaha’s hospital is now seeing a ‘more broad spectrum and every ethnicity’.

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