At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it was assumed that children don’t get severe symptoms even if they are infected by the coronavirus infection. However, this is not true.

A new research study has suggested that a large number of children who have got hospitalised due to coronavirus infection have developed Multisystem-Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS), which can be fatal. MIS is a condition in which a patient develops fever and inflammation occurs in multiple organs, such as the heart, brain, lungs with high inflammatory markers.

Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi had received 41 COVID-19 patients in the age group of 0 to 12 years between 1st April – 31st July 2020.

A reviewing study of the clinical manifestations and consequences in such patients, which was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Tropical Paediatrics had shown that 20 (i.e., 49%) of these children were suffering from MIS.

According to the study, the non-MIS children were stable and needed only supportive therapy whereas those suffering from MIS were very sick and required intensive critical care treatment. Seven (i.e., 33%) out of 21 non-MIS-C cases needed oxygen supplementation as compared to 90% of MIS cases. Ventilator support was needed in only one out of 21 non-MIS cases whereas 65% of children who suffered from MIS needed ventilation at or during their hospitalisation.

The mortality in COVID-19-affected children and who had developed MIS was approximately 60%. As per the study, 12 out of 20 children who were suffering from MIS died in spite of all the efforts. In the non-MIS category, the death rate was only 1%.

The research study was conducted by Dr Rani Gera, Harish Chellani, Nidhi Chopra, Amitabh Singh, and Shobhna Gupta from paediatrics and Dr Balvinder Singh Arora from the microbiology department of Safdarjung Hospital. Dr Ravindra Pandey of the biostatistics department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences too contributed to this study.

Most of the children who were included in the study had pre-existing ailments. The doctors said that this might have led to high mortality rate. They concluded that acute onset of fever and symptoms, for example seizures or altered sensorium, are a prominent clinical presentation of MIS and timely intervention can save lives.

Dr Shamsher Dwivedee, Chairman, Neurosciences at VIMHANS Nayati super specialty hospital, said that the high prevalence of MIS and mortality is not seen in children suffering from COVID-19 in high-income countries or private hospitals in Delhi. He said that they need to explore the role of malnutrition. As Safdarjung hospital sees patients from all sections of the society, one has to do a subset analysis to observe the effect of malnutrition in COVID-19-related MIS.

Source: ET Healthworld