At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the conventional wisdom among medical professionals and researchers was that the virus largely spared or presented minor symptoms in children. But increasingly, doctors around the world have reported cases of a new illness thought to be related to coronavirus, referred to as both MIS-C — multisystem inflammatory syndrome — and PIMS — pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome.
Dr. Kevin Friedman, a cardiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, said the symptoms are similar to Kawasaki disease — a condition that causes inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels.
“I think there's definitely patients who are presenting with this new inflammatory illness that have characteristic features of Kawasaki,” Friedman told Jim Braude on WGBH News’ Greater Boston Wednesday. “The harder part, though, is that there’s patients presenting even sicker than what a typical Kawasaki patient would who fall on the other end of the spectrum of disease.”
Last week, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health alert to pediatricians warning them to be on the lookout for symptoms of the syndrome, which Friedman listed as persistent fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting.
Generally, he believes the illness is connected to the coronavirus due to the timing of how the symptoms have presented themselves.
“I'm convinced both because of the temporal time throughout Western Europe and because the vast majority of these kids, now that we have serology testing — the antibody testing — are testing positive for IgG, indicating that they were exposed and mounted an immune response,” he explained.
When asked why some kids who contract COVID-19 develop the syndrome and some do not, Friedman indicated that researchers are still working on an answer.
“It may be related to several factors, including the degree of exposure to COVID and then the genetic predisposition to form this type of severe immune response in children. That's the same as I think people have always said in Kawasaki disease: ‘why are certain children getting it when we're probably all exposed to the same potential viruses out in the world?’” Friedman said.
Doctors are also beginning to note dramatic drops in child vaccine rates. In New York City, vaccines are down 42% in kids two & younger and 91% in kids three and older, according to the city's health department. Friedman reiterated that parents shouldn’t fear going to the doctor's office for routine care for themselves, or their children.
“I think with appropriate precautions — wearing a mask, good hand-washing, and social distancing — the risk is actually incredibly low. I've been coming to the hospital every day for two months and it's been very you know, things are much different and much more controlled. So I think the risk is very low,” he said.
