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Recently, several cases were reported in which children in the UK and Italy suffered from a severe inflammatory disease. Since several of the children had tested positive for covid-19, suspicions soon arose that it was the coronavirus.
Soon after, 15 cases were also discovered in New York, USA. USA, Three of whom died later. Even in the UK, children have died.
Many cases in Bergamo
Now Italian researchers describe in the journal The lancet Ten cases detected in the province of Bergamo, in northern Italy, one of the areas most affected by the virus. It is 30 times more than what you usually get in a serious inflammatory disease called Kawasaki disease.
TOMB
The authors of the article call the disease a disease similar to Kawasaki. It is a very rare inflammatory disease that affects the blood vessels of children under the age of five.
But Jonas F Ludvigsson, a pediatrician at Örebro and professor of chronic epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute, wants to call this difficult condition something else.
– I would like to call it “covid-19 associated hyperinflammation” and it is a life-threatening condition. Most of the children we’ve seen in the UK and Italy have been between five and fifteen years old, he says.
The immune system overreacts.
Almost all affected children have had a covid-19 infection, but have not exhibited any typical covid-19 symptoms.
– These children have probably reacted to covid-19 and their immune systems have overreacted. Children who become ill along with covid-19 often have difficulty breathing. We now see serious heart effects instead, says Jonas F Ludvigsson.
Extremely unusual
Children have a high fever, inflammation of the heart, and failure of the entire body and organs. Organ failure may demonstrate that the heart cannot pump blood, the kidneys and liver cannot perform their tasks in the body, and a high proportion of children with covid-19 associated hyperinflammation have required respiratory care.
Children were treated in most cases with immunoglobulin and cortisone.
– We have had at least one probable fall in Sweden. But even though there are now reports of children with hyperinflammation, one must remember that the condition is extremely unusual, he says, says Jonas F. Ludvigsson.
This hyperinflammation affects children who have previously been completely healthy, children with chronic diseases and congenital heart defects are not at risk.