Doctors in the United Kingdom (UK) are on high alert for the inflammatory syndrome, which has been seen in a number of infants admitted to intensive Care Units (ICUs) across Britain and Italy.
According to the Daily Mail, citing sources from the National Health Service (NHS), "most of the children affected already have Kawasaki disease." Kawasaki disease is a form of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), causing the immune system of a person to attack the body's organs.
Possibly related to COVID-19
This was the diagnosis of a doctor who treated Bertie Brown, a two-year-old boy at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Charles Hastings Way. Bertie's temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius and had a blotchy rash that started turning black.
Bertie's rash was only itchy at first, but it gave him severe pain and a "dangerously high fever." Doctors at the hospital monitored his condition for five days and gave him an immunoglobin transfusion.
Gemma Brown, Bertie's mother, was horrified because her son "didn't have any respiratory problems but he was put in a ward on his own and he was easily the most poorly child in the hospital," she told the Daily Mail.
Unfortunately, Bertie was not given a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) test to see if his condition is not related to COVID-19. According to the Science Times, Kawasaki disease causes inflammation and fever, "all hallmark signs of COVID-19."
Aside from fever, other symptoms of Kawasaki disease include stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Just one of many cases
Gemma told the Daily Mail, "I don't know how the Government is going to prove there's a link if they're not testing patients."
She asked the government to test Bertie because she had a gut feeling that his condition was related to COVID-19, "but they just told me that there was no need to test the under-fives," Gemma said.
The Daily Mail reported most confined children are under five years old. Aside from fever, one child was put on life support after the kid's heart and lungs started failing.
Most of the children in the ICUs have Kawasaki disease, said an NHS source. Health chiefs in the United Kingdom are unaware of any deaths involving British children and inflammatory syndrome.
The Daily Mail said Matt Hancock, UK's Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, admitted some have "mysteriously died with no underlying conditions." Up to 20 children have been hospitalized as of Monday because of the inflammatory syndrome.
But children aren't high-risk individuals for COVID-19, even if doctors call them "super-spreaders" of viral illnesses like flu. There are only eight COVID-19 cases per 100,000 children in the UK - "statistics show it is fatal in three per cent of cases that go untreated," according to the Daily Mail.
Bertie was born prematurely, weighing only 1.5 pounds. He always had a weak immune system, making him vulnerable to viruses.
"The immune system is "the body's defence force against disease-causing bacteria, viruses and other organisms that we touch, ingest and inhale every day," according to the World Economic Forum. It helps the body fight pathogens, such as COVID-19, which has over 3.12 million confirmed cases, 929,000 recoveries, and 217,000 deaths.
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