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The severe sequel MIS-C (Multisystemic Inflammatory Syndrome in Children and Adolescents with covid-19) is a very unusual phenomenon, but now the total number of affected children is still beginning to increase in such large numbers that Swedish specialists want to collect their experience in a scientific study.
Around 70 children have fallen ill in Sweden since the pandemic began. During the late summer and early fall, the patients disappeared, but two new cases were noted last week. Researchers are not surprised.
– Since it is a disease that occurs as a result of covid-19, we saw the same pattern this spring. The big peak of the first wave of the pandemic was reached 4-5 weeks before we saw the peak in MIS-C, says pediatrician Stefan Berg from Drottning Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg.
Stefan Berg, chief physician in the section of immunology and rheumatology at Drottning Silvia Hospital for Children and Adolescents in Gothenburg, is one of those conducting the new study.
Photo: private
Stefan Berg is part of that group by rheumatologists and immunologists who are now starting a research project on Swedish cases of MIS-C. Annacarin Horne from the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital in Stockholm is also driving the project.
– We have the strong feeling that we see a pattern in our patients, but of course we also want evidence. Maybe we missed something? says Stefan Berg.
According to the research group, children who fall ill are in principle completely healthy before. They do not have obesity or other underlying diseases. Their experience with covid-19 is also almost always very mild, some have hardly any symptoms. MIS-C occurs approximately 3-6 weeks after infection with SARS-CoV2.
– It is when they come for the treatment of this adjacent complication that we do antibody tests and we can affirm that they have had the coronavirus, says Stefan Berg.
Sick children suffers from hyperinflammation that manifests in fever and pain, but often also skin rashes and red eyes. Stefan Berg does not believe that parents should generally worry about the unusual syndrome, but since we now have a sharp increase in covid-19 in society, there is still a risk that more children will suffer from MIS-C. Affected children need hospital care and, in some cases, intensive care as well.
– But it is also important to spread the information that no Swedish child affected by this disease has died, he says.
However, deaths have been reported in other European countries and the new study aims, among other things, to study this difference: What makes Swedish healthcare successful?
– We went in a little faster with the anti-inflammatory treatment, I think. But through study, we hope to be able to show it and show that it has an effect, says Stefan Berg.
Researchers also want to see whether the Swedish strategy of not closing schools, for example, may have led to more Swedish children being affected by MIS-C than children in countries that have chosen a different line. So far, there is no indication that this is the case. Finally, the research team in which Stefan Berg participates also wants to follow the children for two years after the illness.
– We think they did very well. After a week or two in the hospital, they were all released.
Read more news from Gothenburg and Western Sweden here
