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Sunday, May 3

Children and Covid-19

During the past week a number of reports have been published that discuss findings or indications about how the virus is affecting children:

4/27, Business Insider"A serious new coronavirus-related condition may be emerging in children, with UK doctors reporting growing numbers requiring intensive care":

  • General practitioners in the UK have been sent a "significant alert" telling them to look out for symptoms of the new condition, the Health Service Journal reported on Monday.
  • The alert said the condition had features of "toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki Disease," with "abdominal pain and gastrointestinal symptoms," according to the report.
  • The alert also said there had been an increase in children with the condition requiring intensive care in recent weeks, according to the Health Service Journal report.
  • The coronavirus pandemic has so far affected mostly adults, and the total number of cases of this unidentified condition in children is small.
  • The UK government on Monday said it was looking into the reports.
See also The Miami Herald's 4/27 report on the same news.

4/29, CNN: Rare inflammatory syndrome seen in US child with Covid-19


4/30, Bloomberg:  New Reports on Virus in Kids Fuel Uncertainty on Schools: "Children with the new coronavirus may be as infectious as adults, according to a study from Germany that stoked confusion over kids’ role in the pandemic."

4/30, New York Post: 12-year-old girl ‘died for two minutes’ while battling coronavirus
A 12-year-old Louisiana girl “died for two minutes” while battling the coronavirus, which triggered a rare heart condition, according to a report.
[...]
The girl’s rare heart condition was caused by inflammation and was triggered by the virus, her physician told GMA.
“COVID-19 can infect the heart and it can cause the cells in the heart to be unhappy and actually start to die,” the pediatric cardiologist said.
Prior to testing positive for the bug, Juliet had severe abdominal pain, but didn’t have typical COVID-19 symptoms like a fever, dry cough or labored breathing, her mother said.
[...]
[smiling]  "Cause the cells in the heart to be unhappy" -- do you get the feeling that child cardiologist was used to explaining things to children? 

5/01, The Intercept: New research suggests significant undercount of children with coronavirus.

See also, Covid-19 causes sudden strokes in young adults, doctors say, April 23, CNN:
The new coronavirus appears to be causing sudden strokes in adults in their 30s and 40s who are not otherwise terribly ill, doctors reported Wednesday.
They said patients may be unwilling to call 911 because they have heard hospitals are overwhelmed by coronavirus cases.
There's growing evidence that Covid-19 infection can cause the blood to clot in unusual ways, and stroke would be an expected consequence of that.
Dr. Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, and colleagues gave details of five people they treated. All were under the age of 50, and all had either mild symptoms of Covid-19 infection or no symptoms at all.
[...]
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