Is Kawasaki disease related to COVID-19? Why is it happening among children? Officials and experts shed light on the disease.
New York City health officials expressed concern about a recent increase in cases of a rare inflammatory disease. This usually affects children and can be associated with the coronavirus, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
De Blasio said health officials reported at least 15 pediatric cases of this illness. This typically affects children. The symptoms are high fever, swelling in blood vessels, abdominal pain, a rash, and vomiting.
Four of the patients contracted COVID-19. Meanwhile, 11 tested negative but six developed antibodies for the virus, manifesting a prior infection.
The patients suffered from a fever. More than half of them experienced a rash, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or vomiting, the NYC Health Department said in a separate report. “Respiratory symptoms were reported in less than half of these patients.”
The number of cases is “enough for sure to say even though it’s uncommon compared to the hundreds of thousands of people who have contracted, this disease is still causing us concern,” de Blasio said. “If any child is experiencing these symptoms, particularly in combination, call your doctor right away. ”
Last week, the World Health Organization they are studying whether the coronavirus has anything to do with Kawasaki disease in children.
The WHO told its global network of clinicians to remain “on alert” for such cases. Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program, warned on April 29 that the coronavirus, a respiratory disease, affects more than just the lungs.
Meanwhile, in UK, officials reported cases of a rare inflammatory condition in children that could be associated with the coronavirus. According to them, many, but not all, of the children with symptoms of the condition tested positive for the coronavirus.
Unusual phenomena
In an interview with CNBC, Dr. Scott Gottlieb emphasized the possibility that the coronavirus is causing a rare but “unusual phenomena” that affects children. He suggested that “we don’t understand this virus well.”
“It’s really a remarkable thing, after so many months with the virus, and so much reporting in the medical literature, we’re still learning a lot about it,” Gottlieb said on “Squawk Box.”
“I think the incremental information that we’re learning leads us to believe that this is a much more fearsome virus than we perceived perhaps at various points.”
Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, stressed that reports about the condition are not yet rampant. He pointed out that COVID-19 does not only impact older adults or those with existing medical issues.
“There was a notion that this wasn’t really affecting kids. It does appear that there are kids being affected by it,” said Gottlieb.
“We certainly know that there are children who’ve been hospitalized and gotten very sick, but now it appears there’s some unusual phenomena that are affecting children, not in high numbers," he added.
In New York City, the 15 hospitalizations of patients with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease took place between April 17 and May 1.
Moreover, less than half of the patients showed respiratory symptoms. With this, the department stressed the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of children manifesting such symptoms.
