Diseases emerging in children with prior exposure to COVID-19: Study

ILLINOIS: While research and development of vaccines and medicines to treat COVID-19 has been ongoing across the world, a number of studies are now focusing on other diseases that may affect those who have been treated and tested negative for COVID-19. One such study conducted in the United States of America has found that a multisystem hyperinflammatory condition has emerged in children in association with prior exposure or infection to SARS-CoV-2.

A new case series published in ‘Radiology’, a scientific journal, examines the spectrum of imaging findings in children with the post-COVID-19 inflammatory condition known as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). The array of findings include airway inflammation and rapid development of pulmonary edema, coronary artery aneurysms and extensive intra-abdominal inflammatory changes.

In order to conduct the study, researchers performed a retrospective review of clinical, labroratory and imaging findings of the first 35 children under the age of 17 who were admitted to Evelina London Children’s Hospital, the institution that recorded a surge of admittance of children with a multi-system hyperinflammatory syndrome. In 94 per cent of the children, the most common clinical presentation was fever, while in 86 per cent of the children, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea was observed. Two children required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) due to severe myocardial dysfunction. Lab tests revealed that all of the children had abnormal white blood cell counts.

Thus, the study concluded that MIS-C has been found to infect children under the age of 17 who have had prior infection or exposure to COVID-19.