Doctors see possible link between coronavirus, serious children’s illness

British doctors have warned of an increased number of children contracting a rare illness that could be linked to the coronavirus outbreak.

In a Sunday tweet, the UK’s Pediatric Intensive Care Society (PICS) linked to a National Health Service alert warning of a small increase in children with critical illnesses manifesting as “overlapping features of toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki disease with blood parameters,” some of whom were diagnosed with the virus.

Kawasaki, a rare childhood illness, inflames blood vessels throughout the body and is associated with fevers, rashes and enlarged lymph nodes.

PICS said only a handful of children in critical condition have been admitted to intensive care units with the virus and a “small number of children nationally” displayed the symptoms in question.

*Urgent alert*

Rising no of cases presenting to #PedsICU with multi-system hyperinflammatory state, overlapping features of toxic shock syndrome & atypical Kawasaki disease, bloods consistent with severe #COVID19 – seen in both #SARSCoV2 PCR +ve AND -ve

Please share widely pic.twitter.com/Bj6YHLJ8zi

— PICSUK (@PICSociety) April 26, 2020

In recent weeks, “there has been an apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multisystem inflammatory state requiring intensive care across London and also in other regions of the UK,” the Health Service Journal first reported Monday, according to CNN.

“There is a growing concern that a [COVID-19] 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,” the journal added.

Experts told the network that the incidence of pediatric cases of the virus remains low but that it is vital to pay attention to any possible trends in the existing cases.

“Thankfully Kawasaki-like diseases are very rare, as currently are serious complications in children related to COVID-19, but it is important that clinicians are made aware of any potential emerging links so that they are able to give children and young people the right care fast,” Simon Kenny, the NHS’s national clinical director for children and young people said in a statement sent to CNN.