Doctors advised to report cases of immune disorder symptoms in children, which are possibly linked to Covid-19.

Doctors told to refer cases of Covid-19-related disease to hospitals

DOCTORS who encounter children who may have symptoms of a severe immune disorder purportedly linked to Covid-19 should report the cases to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and National University Hospital (NUH).

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is working with the two hospitals to monitor the situation.

“We have advised medical practitioners to refer potential cases that present clinical features suggestive of Kawasaki-like symptoms to the Children’s Emergency at KKH and NUH, and be watchful for this condition in paediatric cases who are confirmed with Covid-19 cases,” said the ministry on Monday.

It added that such a condition in children remained very rare and information was still emerging on its link to Covid-19.

Western health authorities on Friday sounded the alarm on a severe immune disorder appearing in children that is apparently linked to the coronavirus sweeping the globe.

At least five children – three in the United States and one each in France and Britain – have died from the syndrome, according to a report by AFP.

MOH said that as of last Thursday, all children in public hospitals in Singapore who have tested positive for coronavirus had either mild or no symptoms of the Covid-19 disease.

“Of these, none had fit the case definition for Kawasaki disease,” the ministry said.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said last Friday that the continent had seen some 230 suspected cases of the so-called paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome in children up to 14 years old.

It said signs and symptoms that appear in affected children are a mix of the ones for Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome, involving high fever, abdominal pain and heart problems.

US health officials have also asked doctors to report potential cases, and New York, the epicentre of the Covid-19 infection in the US, is monitoring over 100 cases of the disorder.

In a virtual briefing on Friday, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said initial reports “hypothesise that this syndrome may be related to Covid19”, and called on clinicians across the world to help “better understand this syndrome in children”.