(Alice Tidey/ EuroNews) — A new coronavirus-related syndrome impacting children could be emerging in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) has warned.
NHS England has sent an urgent alert to GPs warning that over the previous three weeks there has been a rise in children presenting with a “multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care”.
The Paediatric Intensive Care Society (PICS) added that children show symptoms of toxic shock syndrome — which is caused by a bacteria getting into the body and releasing harmful toxins — and atypical Kawasaki Disease “with blood parameters consistent with severe COVID-19 in children”.
Kawasaki disease primarily affects children under the age of 5 and can cause blood vessels to become inflamed and swollen and lead to complications in the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart.
“There is a growing concern that a Sars-CoV-2-related inflammatory syndrome is emerging in children in the UK, or that there may be another, as yet unidentified, infectious pathogen associated with these cases,” it said.
Abdominal pain and gastrointestinal symptoms and cardiac inflammation are common features of the infection. (…)