NHS Doctors have been issued an urgent alert over a rise in the number of children needing intensive care during this COVID19 Epidemic
Children are not thought to be badly affected by COVID-19 - very few youngsters have died around the world since the pandemic began in December. Their apparent resilience to the disease has baffled doctors for weeks because they are often 'super-spreaders' of viral illnesses such as flu.
The children being seen with this syndrome often suffer from stomach pain, cardiac inflammation and 'gastrointestinal symptoms' - which could include vomiting and diarrhoea.
Prof Whitty added: 'This is a very rare situation but I think it is entirely plausible that this is caused by this virus, at least in some cases.
'Because we know that in adults who of course have much more disease than children do, big problems are caused by an inflammatory process and this looks rather like an inflammatory process, a rather different one.
'Therefore, given that we have got a new presentation of this at a time with a new disease, the possibility - it is not a definite, we need to look for other causes as well - but the possibility that there is a link is certainly plausible.'
According to the alert, which was originally shared with GPs in north London, children affected display signs similar to toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a severe illness associated with infections, and have blood markers in line with severe Covid-19 in children.
Comments