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Worldwide there have been reports of severe inflammation in children associated with crown infection, and there is now a first death in France. On Friday, a hospital in Marseille reported the first death from the syndrome in the country.
A nine-year-old boy died as a result of “neurological damage related to cardiac arrest,” the attending physician, Fabrice Michel, told AFP. Tests had shown that the boy had been infected with the novel coronavirus.
The deaths associated with the mysterious disease have already occurred in the United States. New York State seems particularly affected here. In approximately 100 cases in the state, the children showed symptoms such as fever, rashes, or difficulty breathing. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently asked hospitals to prioritize children with these symptoms on the Covid 19 tests.
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A connection to another disease is suspected. A study in Bergamo, the center of the pandemic in Italy, highlighted the characteristic features of the rare inflammatory disease that is similar to the so-called Kawasaki syndrome.
As doctors report in The Lancet, this could be related to Covid-19, but doctors emphasize that only a small proportion of younger patients are affected.
Crown infection is usually mild in children. But in some cases, the condition appears to lead to symptoms reminiscent of Kawasaki syndrome, a rare childhood disease. This syndrome leads to an overreaction of the immune system, which is likely caused by bacteria or viruses.
Adults already know that corona virus can also cause an overreaction. A direct connection between Kawasaki and Covid-19 has not yet been established. However, there are now reports from various countries of children with inflamed blood vessels, rashes, and fever, symptoms that at least resemble Kawaski’s disease.
Doctors at the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo have compared the cases of children who showed such symptoms between February 18 and April 20 with the cases of Kawasaki in the region from five years before the pandemic began. . In total, there were 19 Kawasaki cases between January 2015 and mid-February this year.
Ten children with symptoms
In the two months since then They treated 10 children with symptoms similar to those of Kawasaki, which according to the study authors corresponds to a 30-fold increase, and the doctors themselves noted that it is difficult to draw valid conclusions based on such small numbers.
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Eight of the ten children who were hospitalized after February 18 tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 on an antibody test. All of the children in the study survived, but those who became ill during the pandemic showed more severe symptoms than those of the previous five years. Cardiac complications occurred in six of the children and five showed signs of toxic shock syndrome. Furthermore, more of them had to be treated with steroids than in the group before the pandemic broke out. Another difference: Children who became ill during the crown wave were on average older than those who had been previously diagnosed with Kawasaki. Due to these differences, the authors advocate classifying inflammatory disease as a “Kawaski-like syndrome”.
In fact, the Italian study, as a similar summary from Great Britain, shows different courses that only partially correspond to a typical Kawasaki syndrome, but often represent the so-called atypical Kawasaki syndrome, emphasizes Johannes Hübner, deputy director of the children’s clinic from the University of Munich, in an independent classification “An atypical Kawasaki syndrome shows some very nonspecific symptoms that we see in many viral infections, such as fever and rash.” In some of the reported cases, the relationship with Covid-19 was also unclear or unsafe.
“The situation in Germany is not worrying”
“We have never heard of such a backlog of cases in Germany,” summarizes Hübner, who is also president of the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (DGPI). The DGPI is currently in the process of establishing a suspicious case notification system and will closely monitor the situation. “At the moment, however, the situation in Germany is certainly not worrying,” said the doctor.
Berlin virologist Christian Drosten made it clear Thursday on the NDR podcast that he sees no reason for the scaremongering. It is a rare phenomenon that international pediatrics is now beginning to discuss. Drosten also referred to good treatability.
Children affected only minimally
Russell Viner, president of the British Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, also said: “Although the article suggests a possible emerging inflammatory syndrome related to Covid-19, it is important, for both parents and healthcare workers, to reappear. emphasize that children are minimally affected by Sars-CoV-2 infection. “
However, understanding the phenomenon in children could provide important information about immune responses to Sars-CoV-2 that may be relevant to adults and children, Viner said. “Especially when it comes to an antibody-mediated phenomenon, it can affect vaccine studies and also explain why some children take Covid-19 seriously while most are unaffected or asymptomatic. (dpa)
