UK And Italy Say Some Children Have Died From Syndrome Linked To COVID-19

British and Italian health care experts are looking into a possible link between COVID-19 and a severe inflammatory disease which affects infants who are admitted into hospitals with swollen arteries and high fever.

Medical experts in northern Italy, one of the worst-hit countries by the crisis in the world, have revealed information about the extremely large numbers of children under 9 years of age with bad cases of what seems to be Kawasaki disease, which is more common in some places in Asia.

When asked about the horrific syndrome on LBC (a British radio station),  UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock seemed to suggest that some children with no underlying health problems had passed away from it. However, the British health ministry, later on, made clear that he had been talking about coronavirus more generally.

“We are not aware of any confirmed cases of children dying from this syndrome,” a ministry spokesman said. “The minister did not say that there are confirmed cases of children dying from this syndrome.”

Mr. Hancock said it was a new disease that experts believe may be linked to COVID-19.

“We’re not 100 percent sure because some of the people who got it hadn’t tested positive, so we’re doing a lot of research now but it is something that we’re worried about,”  he said.

Until very recently, minors were believed to be much less vulnerable to coronavirus than older people, even though the strange inflammatory disease as seen in Britain, Italy, and Spain may bring new facts to the table.

“It is rare, although it is very significant for those children who do get it, the number of cases is small,” Mr. Hancock said.

Kawasaki disease, even though its causes are largely unknown, is linked with skin rashes, fever, swelling of glands, and in more extreme cases, inflammation of heart arteries.

According to the UK’s National Health Service, the disease only hits around 8 in every 100,000 kids each year, most of whom are below 5 years of age.

There is some evidence that people can inherit a predisposition to the syndrome, however, the exact way in which this happens remains unclear.

Children either come out with positive COVID-19 tests or its antibodies have triggered gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea in the last two weeks, according to the Spanish Paediatrics Association.

Even though they were other than that in good health, the children’s condition could transform in a matter of hours into shock including hypotension and tachycardiaeven without fever.

Most instances were found in school-aged or teenage minors and at times overlapped with Kawasaki disease or the toxic shock syndrome (TSS).

Victoria Atkins, the junior British interior minister, has said parents should be aware of the problem.

“It demonstrates just how fast-moving this virus is and how unprecedented it is in its effect,” she told Sky News.