A new, mysterious, and rare disease has popped up in America and Europe, and doctors have speculated that this is another new outcome from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Called as the Kawasaki disease, this has been mainly affecting children aged 2-15 years. Many children in USA and Europe have been already hospitalized, and the number of cases keeps mounting.
15 children with dangerous symptoms hospitalized just in New York City
Doctors say that another name for Kawasaki disease is the “multi-system inflammatory syndrome” and all the signs show that it could be related to COVID-19.
As reported by New York’s health department, 15 children just in New York City had high fever and inflammation along with a sudden shock, and an acute heart condition – symptoms of the dreadful Kawasaki disease.
The children also had skin rashes, stomach pain, diarrhea, and vomitting.
Five of them were put on ventilators and fortunately, none of them died.
They were tested positive for Coronavirus
But the curious case here is that 4 out of 15 children were tested positive for Coronavirus, the other six were tested to be formerly positive based on their blood tests.
Doctors in UK and rest of the Europe have reported a sudden rise in the cases of small children falling critically ill by this Kawasaki disease and all the signs show that it is being triggered by a Coronavirus infection.
This all throws the previous assumption away that Coronavirus wasn’t affecting children. It was assumed that children did not fall sick from the virus, and most of them did not even show any symptoms.
What is Kawasaki disease?
Kawasaki disease causes severe inflammation in the arteries connected to the heart, and it ends up blocking the blood flow. The disease usually ends up with fatal heart damage and eventual loss of life.
Kawasaki disease is very common among children who are younger than 5 years. But in some cases, it affects teenagers as well.
How is Coronavirus causing the Kawasaki disease?
Doctors and scientists are still not sure about what causes the Kawasaki disease, but the best guess is that it happens when body’s immune system overreacts to a severe infection.
For example, in most of the Coronavirus deaths, the people died not because of the direct effects of the virus, but because their own immune system went out of control and caused organ damage while trying to fight the Coronavirus.
Now, the children have become susceptible to it as well.
Featured Image Courtesy: American Heart Association
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