13-year-old boy diagnosed with rare post-COVID brain disease

NEW DELHI: A 13-year-old boy from Devangere district, Karnataka, was diagnosed with a rare brain disease which arises after the COVID-19 infection. N K Kalappanavar, Director, SS Institute of Medical Sciences, said that the child is suffering from Acute Necrotizing Encephalopathy of Childhood (ANEC) and has been admitted in the hospital since the last eight days. It is the second case in the country and first in the state.

Kalappanavar said that the brain of the patient is inactive and he was put on ventilator support for three days. He requires one more week of treatment and it needs to be examined how severely his brain is affected, after the condition improvs. The National Institute of Health, United States Department of Health and Human Services, said that ANEC is a rare disease which damages the brain and is followed by an acute febrile disease.

The symptoms of the disease include fever, respiratory infection and gastroenteritis, which is often followed by seizures which may lead to coma, liver problems and neurological deficits. According to the doctors, many patients have complained about high-grade fever, lung fibrosis, mucormycosis and other bacterial infections caused after recovering from COVID-19.