By Ankur Banerjee
(Reuters) – Nearly 300 cases of a rare and life-threatening syndrome associated with the new coronavirus have been identified in the United States in two studies in The New England Journal of Medicine.
US studies published Monday follow multiple reports of the syndrome among COVID-19 patients in France, Italy, Spain, and Britain.
Multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, including fever, rashes, swollen glands, and, in severe cases, cardiac inflammation.
A consistent picture of the syndrome is emerging that occurs two to four weeks after coronavirus infection, said Michael Levin, professor of pediatrics and international child health at Imperial College London, in an accompanying editorial.
The syndrome affects 2 out of every 100,000 youth, defined as under 21, out of 322 out of 100,000 in that group receiving COVID-19, he wrote.
While the studies identified around 300 cases in the United States, Levin noted that more than 1,000 cases have been reported worldwide and that there has been a relatively high proportion among black, Hispanic, or South Asian people.
“There is concern that children who meet the current diagnostic criteria for MIS-C are the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and a bigger problem may be lurking below the waterline,” Levin wrote.
The first study, led by Boston Children’s Hospital, found 186 cases of MIS-C in 26 U.S. states, 4 out of 5 cases required intensive care and one in five required mechanical ventilation. Four patients died.
The second study, which looked at patients in New York and was conducted by the state health department, found another 95 confirmed cases, of which 4 out of 5 needed to be admitted to the intensive care unit and two patients died.
It is not clear why MIS-C develops in some children and adolescents and not in others.
(Reports by Ankur Banerjee in Bangalore, edition by Peter Henderson and Sonya Hepinstall)
