WHO ‘urgently’ investigates link between coronavirus and syndrome affecting young children

LONDON – The World Health Organization is investigating “urgently” a possible link between coronavirus and Kawasaki syndrome, a disease of unknown cause that mainly affects children under 5 years of age.

“We are aware of this newly described syndrome in several countries in Europe and potentially a small number of cases in North America,” said Dr. Adam Finn, chairman of the WHO European Technical Advisory Group, at a press conference Thursday.

“We are urgently carrying out a surveillance study in the UK to establish what is happening,” he added.

Also known as Kawasaki disease, the Kawasaki syndrome is described on its website by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “acute febrile illness of unknown cause” that “primarily affects children under the age of five.”

Clinical signs include “fever, rash, swelling of the hands and feet, irritation and redness of the whites of the eyes, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, and irritation and inflammation of the mouth, lips, and throat”, add.

Finn said the WHO knew about 20 cases had been reported in London and other parts of the UK, adding that other places were also reporting cases.

“Only about half of these children are testing positive for coronavirus, so we are not completely clear as to the causal relationship at this time, although this may be a late complication of infection with a hyperinflammatory syndrome of some kind.” , said.

“The size and exact nature of this problem is just beginning to emerge, and we will learn much more in the coming days and weeks,” he added.

Finn also warned that it may be some time before a COVID-19 vaccine is available.

“As in a horse race, the first horse out of the box is not necessarily the horse that finishes the race and here, we are not as interested in the winner as how many horses we can get to the finish line.” said.

“Vaccines that are already in the testing phase may be the ones that attract the most attention and the most optimism,” he said, adding that we must take into account “that they can show that they are not safe and that they may not be effective and, perhaps the most important of all, they may not prove to be the easiest to manufacture and distribute. “