Janiya Johnson, 5, from Portage, Indiana, was diagnosed a few months ago with multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.
MIS-C is a rare diagnosed condition that usually occurs four to six weeks after a child is exposed to COVID-19. Janiya is feeling better now, but her parents say she was lucky to have been diagnosed when she went.
“The doctor told us that maybe if we had waited another day, she possibly, they probably couldn’t have done anything for her. So this is a scary time,” said Oshunda Johnson, her mother.
Janiya’s family never knew she had COVID. Later, she tested positive for antibodies. His symptoms included vomiting, fever, stomach and neck pain, and his kidneys and liver started to fail.
“She is full of energy. She is ready to go,” said her father, Johnathan Johnson. “And it was different when she wanted to lie down and sleep.”
Finally, she was diagnosed at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, where she ended up in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit.
“Many of these children require intensive treatment in one of our pediatric ICUs,” said Dr. Frank Belmonte, medical director at Advocate Children’s Hospital. “They need intravenous fluids. Many of them will need steroids or other anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce inflammation.”
With anti-inflammatories and other drugs, Janiya has fully recovered. His family and doctors are now warning others about this condition that disproportionately affects minorities.
“We know that about a third of the children who catch him are of Latinx origin and about a third are of African American descent, so we want these communities to be well aware of that,” said Dr. Belmonte.
About 2,000 children in the United States have been diagnosed with MIS-C. Much is still unknown about MIS-C, including why Janiya and other children fell ill and others did not.
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