Kawasaki Disease Outbreak May Threaten Reopening Of Europe's Schools After COVID-19

Kawasaki Disease Outbreak May Threaten Reopening of Europe's Schools After COVID-19

Pediatricians of the UK National Health Service (NHS) made headlines this past week after announcing that at least twelve children had required treatment for Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory syndrome that has been linked to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak

BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2020) Pediatricians of the UK National Health Service (NHS) made headlines this past week after announcing that at least twelve children had required treatment for Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory syndrome that has been linked to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Doctors in the US, France, Spain, and Italy have also reportedly confirmed cases of Kawasaki disease among children, many of whom had also tested positive for COVID-19. The outbreak of the rare disease, which can cause toxic shock syndrome, abdominal pain, and cardiac inflammation, may give European leaders further headaches as they look to begin lifting lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease, which includes the reopening of schools.

NEW OUTBREAK COULD RUIN PLANS TO EXIT LOCKDOWN

On the same day as public health officials in the United Kingdom sent an alert to all physicians warning of the Kawasaki disease outbreak, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the government's plans to gradually reopen schools from May 11. This has drawn criticism from lawmakers such as Marine Le Pen, head of the National Front party, who have called for a September reopening.

According to a survey conducted by the Odoxa-Dentsu Consulting firm for the French news portal franceinfo and newspaper Le Figaro, 64 percent of French parents are opposed to the rapid reopening of schools over fears it could trigger a second wave of COVID-19 infections among children.

Gilles Lebreton, who represents the National Front in the European Parliament, told Sputnik that the French government is taking a major risk by reopening the country's schools so soon as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise.

"Since the beginning of the health crisis, Marine Le Pen has insisted on the protection of children; she has asked that schools only reopen in September, since the school year is nearly over, anyway. Facts seem to support her. President Macron and the prime minister are taking a considerable risk: if a single child dies because of the reopening of schools too early, public opinion will never forgive them," he said.

On Wednesday, French Health Minister Olivier Veran confirmed that 15 children had tested positive for Kawasaki disease, although domestic media is reporting that this figure could already be as high as 25.

This new outbreak may have the potential to leave Europe's schools closed for months on end, further slowing the transition from lockdown. The two epicenters of the COVID-19 outbreak, Spain and Italy, have already announced that classrooms will be closed until September and it remains to be seen if other countries will follow suit amid the new outbreak.

RARE INFLAMMATORY SYNDROME POTENTIALLY TIED TO COVID-19

Public health officials across the globe have been caught unaware by the outbreak of Kawasaki disease, a rare condition that causes inflammation of blood vessel walls. Doctors have said that the illness is often linked to viral infections, and an uptick in cases has been observed amid the coronavirus disease pandemic.

"It's a new disease that we think may be caused by coronavirus and the COVID-19 virus. 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," UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said during an appearance on the LBC radio station on Tuesday.

According to Belgian government spokesman for COVID-19, immunologist Yves Van Laethem, Kawasaki disease is incredibly rare in normal circumstances.

"It is a rare disease with only a few cases a year in normal circumstances. With this disease, children have a temperature, sometimes very high, sometimes inflamed nodes, the skin may start to peel or be red, especially in the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. There may be abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting," Van Laethem told Sputnik.

Not all of the children who have tested positive for Kawasaki disease had also contracted COVID-19, leading the immunologist to doubt if there is a specific connection between the two illnesses.

"In studies done on these children in recent weeks, it is noted that some, but not all, are affected by the coronavirus. Therefore, the link between the infection and the increase in these cases is concurrent ... without the virus being necessarily the cause. The virus does not appear to be directly involved. There may be other causes," Van Laethem said.

Olga Chatzis, a pediatrician at the Saint-Luc University Clinic in Brussels, told Sputnik that health care professionals were surprised by the uptick in Kawasaki disease cases.

"We are surprised to have a few children of different ages in recent weeks, most of whom tested positive for COVID-19, with a high fever and inflammation, a form of Kawasaki disease. The children's condition deteriorates very quickly," Chatzis said.

The pediatrician added that while the risk of contagion was low, the coronavirus disease, which has spread rapidly across Europe, acts as a "trigger" for the rare inflammatory syndrome.

"But Kawasaki disease is not in itself an epidemic. It is a somewhat peculiar, and sometimes violent, reaction to an infection but it is very probably not contagious. So, all these simultaneous cases make us think that there is a link with the current epidemic, that COVID-19 works as an infectious trigger even if there is no evidence yet of a link between the two," she added.

In most cases, children fully recover after contracting Kawasaki disease. Medical professionals at the Stanford University Hospital in the US treated a six-month-old girl who was hospitalized with the disease and later tested positive for COVID-19. The child has since been discharged and has recovered, doctors at the hospital told the CNN broadcaster on Wednesday.

WILL EUROPE'S SCHOOLS REMAIN CLOSED?

If European states can limit the number of COVID-19 cases reported each day, the outbreak of Kawasaki disease should not force schools to remain shut, Chatzis posited.

"This is an alert to be taken seriously, but to me, it should not hamper a reopening of the schools," the pediatrician said.

This opinion was shared by Jean Ruelle, professor of virology at UCLouvain university in Belgium, who told Sputnik that there is a low risk of a widespread outbreak of the rare inflammatory syndrome.

"Kawasaki disease is seen mainly before the age of five years and is even more common before the age of two. It has been very rarely observed among adolescents. Therefore, there is no reason to fear an epidemic or an upsurge of cases when students return to school, most of them no longer belong to the age group usually concerned," Ruelle said.

Although Kawasaki disease may continue to be observed among a limited number of children, COVID-19 continues to pose a severe risk. European leaders have warned of the dangers of a second wave of the outbreak as countries begin to exit lockdown measures.

The COVID-19 outbreak has disproportionately affected the world's elderly population, and there is a contradictory body of research as to whether children are crucial asymptomatic carriers who play a role in the transmission of the disease.

Despite this, schools in Denmark partially reopened on April 15, and other European countries are eager observers, hoping to assess whether this measure leads to another surge in cases. The Netherlands plans to gradually reopen classrooms from May 11, along with France, and the Belgian government will take similar measures four days later.

In most cases, classrooms will be limited in size to 15 children, although there are still concerns over the potential for the coronavirus disease to spread further.

Researchers have conducted a study in the French region of Oise, where a 60-year-old teacher was diagnosed with COVID-19 and eventually died due to complications from the disease.

It was discovered that 171 of the 661 participants had also tested positive for the coronavirus disease, including 40.9 percent of students, teachers, and non-teaching staff that were tested. However, only 10.9 percent of parents and siblings had tested positive for the disease, potentially indicating that children may not be as contagious as previously thought.

In any case, public opinion is against the French government. With two-thirds of parents opposing the decision to send children back to school, including 28 percent who thought that the decision was "very bad."

According to the Odoxa-Dentsu poll, only 17 percent of low-income families support reopening schools, compared to 48 percent of high-income families, showing the divides in the country.

The Data-Driven Innovation Lab at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, which has created models that assesses the trajectory of the COVID-19 outbreak, predicts that the majority of European nations will still be battling the disease throughout the summer. It remains to be seen if the decision to rush into reopening schools will be beneficial or a key contributor to a second wave of the disease.