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Maria João Brito, head of the unit that treats children with Covid-19 at the D. Estefânia Hospital in Lisbon, clarified this Wednesday that there are no outbreaks of serious inflammatory diseases associated with the pandemic and guaranteed that professionals are attentive to the symptoms.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating possible links between Covid-19 and a serious inflammatory disease that affects children, but said these are “very rare” cases for now.
“This is not an outbreak, it is not a threat. Therefore, as we have more cases, the probability of having rare forms of the disease will appear,” Maria João Brito, head of the Infectious Diseases Unit, told the agency. from the Dona Hospital. Estefânia, the reference unit for Covid-19 in pediatric age, belonging to the Central Lisbon Hospital Center.
Maria João Brito said that “two, three weeks ago” her Spanish, English and then Italian colleagues reported the appearance of some cases of children and adolescents with this clinical picture.
“Some children had a positive Covid PCR and others did not,” but then the serology was positive, the expert said.
Some cases had some characteristics of Kawasaki disease and other characteristics of the disease known as toxic shock syndrome, “but it is not,” he explained.
The infectiologist explained that “toxic shock syndrome is caused by very aggressive bacteria and Kawasaki disease is an unknown disease,” but that “it is believed to be caused by an infectious agent in which there is immense inflammation. ” of all the organs that can actually cause organ damage.
The reported cases “are clinical pictures that have characteristics on one side and the other”, but they have another “very different characteristic”, with “a significant percentage with abdominal involvement”.
As more cases of infection appear, “rare forms of disease presentation appear.”
“What seems to happen in this form of Covid is that there is an immune dysregulation against an infection, which in this case is Covid-19, and there is an inadequate response from our immune system,” said the doctor, explaining: “Immunity of Our body instead of protecting us attacks our cells. “
According to the specialist, almost all cases require intensive care.
He also explained that “the clinical picture of these patients does not go unnoticed, which leads people to go to the hospital”, because they start with a very high fever that does not go down and “the child looks very sick.”
“No one will stop going to the hospital if something like this happens,” he said, reiterating that “it is a rare situation that is now being reported.”
“The number of cases is so small that these patients cannot really be studied,” Lusa said.
According to the general director of Health, Graça Freitas, so far no case has been registered in Portugal.
“Pediatricians monitor this situation, doctors in general, but to date we have not reported that some of these situations have occurred in Portugal,” said Graça Freitas during the daily press conference to update information on the pandemic in Portugal.
Thanks Freitas also added that children who have been followed in pediatrics in Portugal have, until now, “a very favorable evolution of their clinical condition”.
At the D. Estefânia Hospital, “we have had 75 infected patients to date,” most of them were followed at home, according to Maria João Brito.
“Right now, we have four hospitalized patients,” one of them in intensive care, “and the rest are at home and are followed up in consultation,” said the official, noting that there are already 40 cured, more than half of the cases. . Portugal represents 973 deaths associated with Covid-19 in 24,505 confirmed cases of infection, according to the daily bulletin of the General Directorate of Health (DGS) on the pandemic published today.
The country will end Saturday, May 2, the third period of a 15-day state of emergency, which began on March 19, and the government is expected to announce measures on Thursday to continue fighting the pandemic.
Due to the long weekend, the Government, meanwhile, decreed a ban on travel between municipalities from May 1 to 3.
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