6 children in Florida hospitalized for inflammatory illness linked to coronavirus
Florida’s surgeon general is asking doctors to notify the health department of any suspected cases of children with an inflammatory illness believed to be connected to COVID-19. At least six children in South Florida are hospitalized for the “rare complication.”
Two of the kids are being cared for at Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami, part of Jackson Health System, and are “receiving appropriate treatment in the pediatric intensive care unit, and are showing signs of improvement,” Jackson Health System said in an emailed statement to the Miami Herald Tuesday.
Two others are receiving treatment at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital near South Miami and two more at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, part of Memorial Healthcare System. All three hospitals declined to give details about the patients or when they were hospitalized.
Broward Health’s Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital and Baptist Children’s Hospital say they have not treated any patients for MIS-C, as of Wednesday.
All of the hospitalized children were diagnosed with multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, which has been described as “inflammation (swelling) across multiple body systems,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This can include the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs.
The disease appears to be “a very rare complication” of COVID-19 and while it can get some kids very sick, it has a “very low mortality rate,” said Dr. Ronald Ford, chief medical officer at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
The CDC sent out a health advisory to doctors across the country last week, alerting them to the syndrome, which can begin weeks after a child is infected with COVID-19, including in those who were asymptomatic. The advisory lists potential MIS-C patients as those who are younger than 21.
On Monday, Florida’s Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said during a statewide call with hospital representatives that “a few cases” of the inflammatory disorder had begun to appear in the state and asked physicians and hospitals to report any suspected cases of the syndrome to health department officials, according to Miami Herald news partner CBS4.
Florida’s Department of Health did not respond to the Miami Herald’s inquiry about how many confirmed or possible reports it had received about the syndrome.
What is Multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C?
Doctors in the United Kingdom first alerted other doctors to the syndrome in April. Since then, MIS-C has been seen in children across Europe and in at least 18 states, plus Washington, D.C., CNN reports.
Many of the children diagnosed with the syndrome tested positive for COVID-19, were previously infected with the novel coronavirus (based on antibody tests) or had contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. It’s still unknown if the syndrome can also affect adults or if there are certain children who are at higher risk of falling ill with the syndrome.
And since there is no official treatment for MIS-C, doctors across the country are using “supportive care” to minimize the damage caused by the disease, said Ford of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
Once the UK reports began rolling in, the Hollywood hospital created a multidisciplinary task force to discuss how it would identify and treat patients if the syndrome appeared in South Florida. It also joined an international collaborative registry, led by the University of California in San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital, to submit and review data compiled by children hospitals across the world to learn more about MIS-C and possible treatment methods, Ford said.
Since then, the hospital has treated several suspected cases, but so far, has only had two confirmed patients with MIS-C, Ford said.
Symptoms of Multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C?
Symptoms associated with MIS-C can include fever, abdominal and neck pain, vomiting and diarrhea, rashes and feeling tired, but not all children will have the same symptoms, according to the CDC. Its symptoms can sometimes be similar to those of Kawasaki disease, which primarily affects children younger than 5 or toxic shock syndrome.
The most common symptoms being reported are severe abdominal pain (associated with vomiting) and a fever that lasts more than four days, said Ford. Parents who notice their children experiencing any of the mentioned symptoms or other concerning signs should contact their pediatrician, the CDC says.
Children should also be taken to the ER immediately if they begin to experience “emergency warning signs” including trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion, inability to wake or stay awake, bluish lips or face or severe abdominal pain.
“The good news is that in terms of healing, kids are very resilient so they tend to recover from most illnesses a lot more quickly than we do as adults,” said Ford.
Doctors are tailoring treatments based on how each patient’s body is responding to the infection and are also using treatments known to work with similar pediatric illnesses like Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome, he said.
The recovery period for the illness also varies. Based on what the medical community currently knows, children who have multiple organs affected by the disease could take a week or two to recover while those with a “mild” infection could recover within a few days, said Ford. Not every child diagnosed with MIS-C will have to be hospitalized either, depending on their condition, he said.
“Its not something we want parents to panic about but we do want them to be able to recognize when they need to talk with a pediatrician or seek medical care,” said Ford.
The CDC says it’s also working with state and local health departments across the United States and with international partners to learn more about MIS-C, including how common it is and who is at risk.
Are kids at higher risk of COVID-19 infection?
The CDC says children “do not appear to be at higher risk for COVID-19 than adults” and the children who do fall ill with the disease “have generally shown mild symptoms” such as fever, runny nose and coughing.
As of April 2, there have been three deaths among children in the United States who were known to have tested positive for COVID-19, but it’s still “unclear” how the disease contributed to their cause of death, the CDC says. None of the deaths were in Florida.
As of Monday, of the more than 45,000 Florida residents known to have tested positive for COVID-19:
▪ 290 are children between the ages of 0 to 4. Of those, 17 were hospitalized at some point during their illness.
▪ 629 are children between the ages of 5-14. Of those, 16 were hospitalized at some point during their illness.
▪ 3,577 are people between the ages of 15-24. Of those, 126 were hospitalized at some point during their illness.
To learn more about ways to help protect and care for your child during the COVID-19 crisis, visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/children.html
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 10:18 AM.
