Kawasaki-like disease affecting children

IS caused by the coronavirus

UK,(DAILY MAIL),14 MAY 2020 - Scientists have found the first clear evidence that infection with coronavirus causes the Kawasaki-like inflammatory condition affecting children.

A study of eight children admitted to a Birmingham hospital with the condition reveals they were infected with the SARS-COV-2 virus several weeks before showing symptoms.

All of the children tested negative in the traditional lab-based test used to diagnose COVID-19 in adults.

However, a custom-built antibody test revealed the young patients had been infected with the coronavirus and produced antibodies to fight off the pathogen.

Doctors who treated the children say antibody tests are the only way to accurately identify the presence of the virus in children suffering with the hyperinflammatory condition, which can be fatal.

It remains unknown why the syndrome develops weeks after infection, but scientists believe it may be due to a severe overreaction from the body’s own immune system. This ‘immune-mediated pathology’ causes the immune system to go haywire and can cause damage to the body’s own cells. A similar phenomenon has been seen in adults, and it can be fatal to the sickest patients.

The syndrome affecting children has been tentatively called PIMS-TS, for ‘paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-COV-2’.

However, the British scientists say the condition’s definition is incorrect as it is not ‘temporally associated’ with the pandemic but is instead ‘triggered by SARS-COV-2 infection’.

Scientists have found the first clear evidence that infection with coronavirus causes the Kawasaki-like inflammatory condition affecting children

Children with the illness are usually taken to hospital with a high fever that has lasted a number of days and severe abdominal pain. The most seriously ill may develop sepsis-like symptoms such as rapid breathing and poor blood circulation