A team of Italian researchers has detected a correlation between the coronavirus and a severe form of Kawasaki disease in children in the northern Italian province of Bergamo, the country's most affected region, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Lancet on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th May, 2020) A team of Italian researchers has detected a correlation between the coronavirus and a severe form of Kawasaki disease in children in the northern Italian province of Bergamo, the country's most affected region, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Lancet on Thursday.
Over the past weeks, several countries have reported a new inflammatory disease spreading and resembling the Kawasaki disease that mostly affects young children and causes heart and kidney failure.
"We report a high number of Kawasaki-like disease cases in the Bergamo province following the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, with a monthly incidence that is at least 30 times greater than the monthly incidence of the previous 5 years, and has a clear starting point after the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in our area," the researchers said.
�Their methodology was to examine records of patients of Hospital Papa Giovanni XXIII in Bergamo. They found that in more than five years since January 2015 to February of this year, only 19 children were admitted to the hospital with syndromes typical of Kawasaki, whereas in mere weeks since February 18 to April 20, as many as 10 children with Kawasaki were admitted and eight of them tested positive for COVID-19.
"Children diagnosed after the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic began showed evidence of immune response to the virus, were older, had a higher rate of cardiac involvement, and features of MAS [macrophage activation syndrome]. The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic was associated with high incidence of a severe form of Kawasaki disease. A similar outbreak of Kawasaki-like disease is expected in countries involved in the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic," the researchers said.
They said Kawasaki was still a rare occurrence among children, affecting not more than 1 in 1,000, but recommended to mind the findings on the discovered correlation when working out COVID-19 policies.
Since early May, three children died in New York State from a Kawasaki-like multisystem inflammatory syndrome and about 100 others count infected. Symptoms include toxic shock, fever, rush, abdominal pain and vomit. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that almost two-thirds of all these children had COVID-19, either in active or recovery phase.
Similar cases were confirmed in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
