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The pandemic fall has been rough in the US, and the country has struggled to overcome the spread of the infection.
Although children are significantly less likely to develop severe coronavirus disease than adults, high levels of infection still mean that more children and adolescents will be affected by a rare and life-threatening syndrome.
MIS-C is a new syndrome that can occur in children and adolescents after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The abbreviation MIS-C is derived from the name of the disorder in English: “Multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children.”
In Norwegian, the full name is “multi-organ inflammatory syndrome in children.”
The disease is associated with an inflammatory condition in various organs such as skin, mucous membranes, heart, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, liver, and kidneys after suffering from covid-19 disease.
New numbers
Since mid-May 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been closely monitoring reported cases of the mysterious syndrome, which can be life-threatening.
Recent figures from the Institute for Infectious Disease Control show that 44 states in the United States have reported cases.
A total of 1,288 children and youth were affected as of December 4, compared with 1,163 in the previous census on October 30.
MIS-C claimed three lives in November, and the syndrome has so far caused 23 infant deaths in the United States during the corona pandemic.
“MIS-C is a new syndrome, and many unanswered questions remain as to why some children and adolescents develop it after covid-19 disease or after contact with someone who has covid-19, while others do not,” writes the CDC.
On November 3, Deputy Director of Health Espen Rostrup Nakstad emphasized to Dagbladet that the incidence of this syndrome is low, but that the condition remains serious for affected children.
99 percent coronary heart disease
Most of the reported cases of MIS-C occur in children and adolescents between the ages of 1 and 14, with a mean age of 8 years.
More than 75 percent of the reported cases have occurred among ethnic minorities, according to the CDC.
99 percent of those affected (1,269) tested positive for SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19.
The rest had been in contact with someone with the coronavirus disease.
Most children developed MIS-C two to four weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Just over half (56 percent) of the reported cases were children.
70 Swedish cases
Sweden has been significantly more affected by the coronavirus pandemic than Norway.
In September, SVT reported that MIS-C has affected about 70 children in Sweden.
In addition, the Swedish state channel reported that Swedish and Italian researchers have carried out the first mapping of the immune system in children affected by the severe inflammatory condition triggered by covid-19.
Researchers claim that it is actually a new syndrome, in a study published in the scientific journal Cell.
– These are seriously ill children. Everyone should receive specialized hospital treatment and around 15-20 children have required intensive care. No children have died in Sweden, says pediatrician Petter Brodin from Karolinska University Hospital and immunologist from SVT’s Karolinska Institute.
Norwegian cases
Cases of the dangerous syndrome are also known among children in Norway.
In August, the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association wrote about a child with heart failure and a threat of multi-organ failure after infection with sars-CoV-2.
“This is not covid-19, but an immune-mediated late reaction called multi-organ inflammatory syndrome. We have treated several children for this, and the same is reported internationally,” writes Tidsskriftet.
