Swedish children suffered a life-threatening covid reaction

It is extremely rare for children to be severely affected by covid-19. But there are hundreds of reports of children in different parts of the world, including Sweden, who have contracted a life-threatening hyperinflammation a month or two after being infected by the new coronavirus.

The immune system has started to attack your own body in various ways. Typical symptoms are high fever, severe abdominal pain, confusion, and heart failure.

Until now, doctors have associated this with the unusual Kawasaki disease, but the symptoms have not been completely correct. Until now, the condition has been called MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children associated with covid-19).

Treaty in Sweden

Now, a group of Swedish and Italian researchers has analyzed blood samples from 13 children who have been treated for MIS-C at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm and at a children’s hospital in Rome. The samples were then compared with blood samples from 28 patients who had Kawasaki disease before the pandemic and from children with mild COVID-19. The result, which has been published in the scientific journal Cell, shows that it is a completely unknown condition so far.

– No doubt about that. It’s completely different parts of the immune system that are involved, a completely different kind of cytokine storm, says immunologist and pediatrician Petter Brodin, who works at the Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital and one of the researchers behind the study.

He emphasizes that it is an extremely unusual condition; in Sweden, so far there are about 70 children. And the positive is that no one has died.

– We have managed to cure them all, because we have found a successful treatment that works very well for these children. But without treatment, the most seriously ill certainly would not have survived. Great efforts are required, says Petter Brodin.

The new study has attracted a lot of international attention and, during the work, the researchers have spread knowledge about the treatment method in international networks for pediatricians, Brodin adds.

Can be caused by vaccination

In the next step, researchers look for genetic factors that may be related to an increased risk of developing MIS-C. This is important because, in theory, MIS-C could also be activated with a COVID-19 vaccine in vulnerable people.

– The condition is due to the fact that the immune system is activated against this virus and something goes very wrong. Then it could also go wrong by activating the immune system with a vaccine. We need to find out quickly now, before we start mass vaccinating a large part of the population.

So far, MIS-C has mainly affected children with an average age of 11 years, but also some children in their teens and some adults in their 30s. The strong reaction has occurred a month or two after the children were infected, and in many cases, the children have not even noticed the infection.

– But as a parent, you don’t need to worry that this is something you miss. Children get so sick that you go to the hospital and find out there. We have spread the information throughout the country. And like I said, it’s extremely unusual, and now we have an effective treatment, says Petter Brodin.

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