Mirroring national trends, local cases of coronavirus-associated inflammatory syndrome in children increased after an increase in infections in the bay area in December and January.
The syndrome, called Multisystemic Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, is a condition in which various parts of the body become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. .
Children who develop MIS-C may experience fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, red eyes and / or extreme exhaustion, says the CDC. It is unclear what causes MIS-C, but most children who have been diagnosed have contracted the coronavirus at some point or have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the virus.
Typically, children who are exposed to or contract the coronavirus do not begin to show symptoms of MIS-C until about a month later, according to Dr. Alan Schroeder, at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Stanford. That is why the increase in cases is happening now – after the holiday period, as cases are decreasing.
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital saw its first case of MIS-C in July, according to Dr. Ted Chaconas, medical director for the Oakland location. Since then, he said the two children’s hospitals – one in Oakland and the other in San Francisco – have treated one to three patients with the syndrome together each month.
That was until January.
In the first month of the year, Chaconas said that hospitals received 12 cases of MIS-C. In February, to date, hospitals have treated five patients with the syndrome.
“At first, I think most pediatric centers felt that we had gotten a little out of control with COVID, because acute COVID rarely causes serious illness in children,” said Chaconas. “But this MIS-C definitely concerns us.”
In the USA, 2,060 children were diagnosed with the disease and 30 died, according to the CDC.
Recent hospital cases do not appear to be more serious than previous cases, Chaconas said. About half of the patients with MIS-C at Benioff Children’s Hospitals required admission to the intensive care unit, with a child needing to undergo a cardiopulmonary bypass. Everyone recovered and hospitals did not report deaths.
Studies have shown that MIS-C has a disproportionate impact on black and Latino children, with them making up almost 70% of all cases. Chaconas said he also saw this trend locally, calling it “a very discouraging kind of disparity”.
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Stanford has also recently seen an increase in cases of MIS-C, according to Schroeder, an intensive care physician.
From August to January, the hospital treated between zero and three cases of the syndrome per month, according to data obtained by The Chronicle. February data is not yet available, but Schroeder said the cases have increased and are probably double the three cases in January.
MIS-C is difficult to diagnose because there is no specific test for it and patients have different symptoms, he said.
Despite the increase in MIS-C, local children’s hospitals have also seen a dramatic decline in the number of children arriving because of respiratory viruses and viral infections, which Chaconas attributed to social detachment, wearing masks and children not going to school. personally.
Meghan Bobrowsky is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @MeghanBobrowsky