Over 1M kids infected: ‘Staggering and tragic’
Mortality rates low, but experts fear MIS-C
A new report released Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association found that the coronavirus is infecting children now more than at any time during the pandemic.
The number of U.S. infants, children and teens diagnosed with COVID-19 has surpassed 1 million, accounting for 11.5% of all cases in states reporting cases by age, according to the data.
The total hit nearly 1.04 million kids on Thursday, including nearly 112,000 new cases last week. That was the highest weekly total of any previous week in the pandemic, the academy said.
AAP President Dr. Sally Goza called the data “staggering and tragic.”
“This pandemic is taking a heavy toll on children, families & communities, as well as on physicians & other front-line medical teams,” she wrote on Twitter. “We need a new, nation-wide strategy, & that should include implementing proven public health measures like mask wearing & physical distancing.”
The report shows that children are still generally more likely than adults to have mild cases. According to data from state health departments that’s missing some states, at least 6,330 pediatric hospitalizations and 133 deaths have been recorded since May.
But while the mortality rates remain low, some experts worry that a rise in cases among children may mean a rise in cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) later.
“Even though children are relatively protected from the acute form of COVID-19, the reason why we explain to parents to protect everyone (is because) even the very young could suffer terrible consequences from this infection,” said Dr. Rick Malley, a senior physician in infectious diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Malley noticed a rise in cases of MIS-C about a month after his community experienced a spike in coronavirus cases. MIS-C is a post-infectious syndrome, which means that it appears af
ter the virus has already cleared.
MIS-C shares some traits with Kawasaki disease, which typically afflicts children under 5 years old. Their common symptoms: prolonged fever, a rash, conjunctivitis, swelling of the palms or soles of the feet, sometimes peeling of the skin in those areas and lymph node enlargement.
Malley said pediatricians and family doctors will be extra vigilant of these symptoms in the next couple of weeks as early recognition is important for successful treatment and recovery. While early studies focusing on this syndrome find that mortality rates are low, doctors are still unsure of long-term effects.
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“... Even the very young could suffer terrible consequences from this infection.”
Dr. Rick Malley Senior physician in infectious diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School