Teenage boy dies from disease linked to coronavirus

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy with no underlying health conditions has died from a Kawasaki-like disease linked to coronavirus.

The teenager was part of a cluster of eight cases treated at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital over a 10-day period in April.

As of Tuesday, the hospital had seen about 50 children with the illness, according to medical director Sara Hanna, with around half since discharged.

England’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said last month that experts are investigating the new syndrome in children “with great urgency”, but has stressed it is rare.

The condition is said to be similar to Kawasaki disease, which mainly affects children under the age of five, with symptoms including a high temperature, rashes, swelling and a toxic shock-style response.

The 14-year-old spent six days in intensive care at the Evelina and tested positive for Covid-19 following his death, according to a report by his medical team published in The Lancet journal.

His main symptoms on being admitted to the hospital were a temperature over 40C, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and headache.

Dr Hanna, a consultant in children’s intensive care, said those with the illness have a “reasonably long stay in hospital”, with some admitted for up to two or three weeks.

“The majority are in high dependency, so not the highest level of intensive care,” she said.

“We have got a handful of children in intensive care but they are not currently requiring the highest levels of support, which is good as some of the children we have had prior to this have been much sicker.”

All of the children have survived apart from the 14-year-old, she said.

The main symptoms are a high and persistent fever, red eyes, a rash and swollen feet and hands.

Most of those with the illness are of school age, while there have been a small number under the age of five.

A “small number” have tested positive for coronavirus, she said, but this is the minority.

Dr Liz Whittaker, clinical lecturer in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology, at Imperial College London, said the fact the syndrome is occurring in the middle of a pandemic, suggests it reasonable to think the two are related.