Baby dies as spate of unusual heart swelling in newborns is linked to lockdowns
A CLUSTER of cases of heart inflammation in newborn babies caused by catching an enterovirus may be linked to Covid lockdowns, it has emerged.
Fifteen newborn babies – 10 in Wales, five in England – have been identified with sepsis, a symptom of myocarditis, after catching a type of enterovirus between June 2022 and March 2023. There was an increase in myocarditis cases from enterovirus infection in November with five cases. One child has died. Myocarditis is a rare manifestation caused when the virus triggers inflammation of the heart tissue.
Health officials are not worried about the spate of cases as it appears to be isolated and are reassuring parents that enterovirus infections are common in children, and myocarditis and sepsis are extremely rare side-effects that are no more likely now than they ever have been.
Scientists believe the cluster may be a result of testing or diagnostic quirks which picked up more cases, and investigations have revealed the cluster to be an anomaly.
Nowhere else in Britain has seen unusual cases in the last 12 months.
But it is also believed it could have been brought about due to changes in epidemiology as a result of Covid pandemic lockdowns.
Dr Liz Whittaker, a consultant in paediatric infectious diseases at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said there are normally increases in enterovirus cases in early spring and early summer. She said: “It is a well recognised cause of infections in babies and neonates in the UK.”
“What I think is slightly unusual about this one is there weren’t many in 2021 ... it may be that the epidemiology of everything has shifted a bit so they have occurred in a slightly different time period.”
Dr Whittaker pointed to other infections which have also experienced changes in infection patterns, such as RSV, adenovirus-induced hepatitis, and Group A Strep.
“The thing with enterovirus that is different is we’ve always had clustering,” she added.
“It’s not uncommon that we don’t see any cases for a season or two and then we see a cluster, and then it doesn’t come again the next year.”
Dr Whittaker added that the five-case peak in November, and only 15 in almost a year, is not of sufficient size to really cause alarm among paediatric infectious disease experts.
Dr Whittaker added: “If this all happened in January or February of this year, I might be more alarmed, but it’s nearly a year.
“There’s really no reason for parents to feel alarm. Enteroviruses are a commonly circulating virus that we see all the time in children and it sometimes causes severe disease in neonates, and that’s basically what [officials are] describing here.”
A senior Whitehall source said it has been declared a “national incident” by the UK Health Security Agency as a result of Welsh authorities raising it as an issue in April.