SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – An alarming number of children are being rushed to Rady Children’s Hospital for “MIS-C”, a respiratory illness from COVID-19.
While the coronavirus pandemic dominates the headlines, pediatricians around the world are seeing an increase in another dangerous trend.
“We are right in the middle of the ‘MIS-C’ epidemic right now,” said Dr. Adriana Tremoulet, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Rady Children’s Hospital.
“MIS-C” is a multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. It is an inflammatory reaction to COVID-19, which mainly affects school-age children, who two to six weeks before received COVID themselves or were exposed to someone with COVID in the household.
“Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, red eyes, red lips, rashes all over the body, hands and feet may have a rash on them or bright red as well,” said Dr. Tremoulet.
Since April last year, Dr. Tremoulet says there have been 57 cases of “MIS-C” at Rady Children’s Hospital. But most patients have been seen in the past two months. In terms of time, she says it aligns exactly two to six weeks after the peak of adult COVID vacation.
“The heart itself has been affected. So the heart is a pump and does not pump well in many of these children,” said Dr. Tremoulet.
Children spend an average of five to nine days at Rady Children’s Hospital, and many need care at the Intensive Care Unit. Doctors treat patients with large doses of anti-inflammatory drugs and, in some cases, steroids.
Dr. Tremoulet says that “MIS-C” predominantly affects Latin American and African American children. But it is not known whether it is due to the fact that there is a higher rate of COVID between these demographic data or a genetic predisposition.
Latin America sees many Latin children with “MIS-C”, but they also see a lot of COVID. While Asian countries have, of course, fewer COVIDs, but I don’t see any “MIS C at all,” Dr. Tremoulet said.
Dr. Tremoulet asks parents to be more vigilant if they have had or been exposed to COVID in recent weeks.
“Use that barometer as a parent, where you know your child is sicker than usual and seek medical attention,” said Dr. Tremoulet.
The youngest “MIS-C” patient at Rady Children’s Hospital was two years old and the oldest was in adolescence. But there have been some cases at national level where “MIS-C” occurs in young adults.
The mortality rate for “MIS-C” is 3 to 5%. But fortunately there were no deaths at Rady Children’s Hospital.