The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, US has linked a COVID-19 to a rare but deadly inflammatory disease in children, which has been reported around the state. The condition, pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, characterised by fever, whole-body rash, bright red eyes and swollen lymph nodes, red cracked lips, extreme headache, and breathing difficulties.
Doctors had suspected that COVID-19 played a role in the new disorder by triggering an excessive immune reaction, but there was no clear proof that linked them both, warning that the mutation of the disease made it harder to study it. The disease has been likened to a similar rare condition in children called Kawasaki disease, although the children who contracted the virus had symptoms that were much more severe than those of the children with Kawasaki disease.
The doctors warn that the “strong association” between the coronavirus and the inflammatory condition should be taken into account as governments around the world ease lockdown restrictions. This news comes at a time where the governments are still figuring out how to protect children from the COVID-19 after CDC informed the public that children aged below two years should not wear a mask or anything that covers their faces.
“If a child tests positive, it is highly likely, there is an adult who has tested positive and infected the child. The risk of children transmitting is minimal. Especially if the child is sick if you that mask on their face you can suffocate that child. Minimize going out. If you must, maintain strict social distance. Wash your hands. Don’t touch a child with hands that are not clean,” Dr Anne Macharia, an infectious disease specialist at Kenyatta National Hospital advised in an interview with Citizen TV.
CDC said that it will soon issue an alert asking doctors to report cases of children with symptoms of the syndrome.