UK warns of child coronavirus infection

An urgent alert sent to British doctors warns that there is a rare and dangerous reaction in children that may be related to coronavirus infection. According to the information, intensive care units in London and other parts of the UK have been treating severely ill children with unusual symptoms such as "multisystemic inflammation" with very similar symptoms to flu. Some of the children who have had these symptoms - the number is not yet clear - have tested positive for coronavirus.

British health authorities issued the alert because there was "growing concern" among paediatricians that an inflammatory syndrome related to COVID-19 was developing in children in the UK, although they also are considering the possibility that it is another infection that has not yet been identified.

According to the BBC, these young patients had very similar symptoms: fever, low blood pressure, rashes and difficulty in breathing. Doctors say the infection is similar to toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki disease, which can cause the tongue to become red and blood vessels to swell. Some also had gastrointestinal symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea, or stomach pain) and heart inflammation, as well as abnormal blood test results.

Medical experts say these symptoms appear when the body is trying to fight infection and report that cases of contagion need urgent treatment.

In the alert, sent to general practitioners in North London, health chiefs said that "there is growing concern that an inflammatory syndrome related to COVID-19 is emerging in children in the UK". So far, the number of children affected has been low, and mainly in the English capital, but pediatricians are concerned. It is not yet known how many children have been affected.

Dr Elizabeth Whittaker, a paediatrician at St Mary's Hospital in London, wrote on her Twitter account that doctors in other countries had reported the same symptoms in children: "Our Italian and Spanish colleagues are also reporting it. The numbers are small but significant".

British health officials have detailed that, in the past three weeks, there has been an "apparent increase in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multisystemic inflammatory state, requiring intensive care".

The Pediatric Intensive Care Society (PICS) has confirmed the "urgent alert". "Abdominal pain and gastrointestinal symptoms have been common features as well as cardiac inflammation. This has been observed in children with confirmed CRP-positive SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as in children with CRP-negative. Serological evidence of possible prior SARS-CoV-2 infection has also been observed," says PICS. This announcement coincides with the message that schools in the UK could reopen in June.

Overall, it should be noted that the impact of the coronavirus on children has been very exceptional. Not only have they fallen ill in smaller numbers than other age groups, but when they have been positive, the symptoms they have experienced have been very mild, something for which experts have yet to find an explanation. For example, in China, only 2% of infections were in minors and, in Spain, that percentage is even lower: only 1% of cases are between 0 and 19 years old.