Family warns of rare disorder caused by COVID-19 after girl dies
The disorder, MIS-C, which is caused by the coronavirus, can show symptoms such as having a high fever or rashes.
By GADI ZAIGCOVID-19 face mask(photo credit: UNSPLASH)
A disorder known as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (or MIS-C), that can be caused by the coronavirus, killed 12-year-old Elizabeth English, WMAR Baltimore reported Wednesday.Dr. Wassim M. Ballan, who treats pediatric infectious disease at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, says doctors are seeing more cases of the disorder despite it supposedly being rare among patients.Ballan also said that MIS-C is treatable if it is detected early. However, being a disorder stemming from COVID-19, children exposed to coronavirus in many cases never show symptoms. “There is a lot of the virus circulating in the community and we were expecting that as a secondary effect of this, we would start seeing more patients with MIS-C,” Ballan said.Elizabeth's mother, Carrie English, said that her daughter suffered from "very classic symptoms of the syndrome, which include a distinct rash, a fever, and pain in the upper abdomen, neck and eyes.Elizabeth died two days after being placed in the Intensive Care Unit.Carrie English now spends her time on social media, in chat rooms and on survivor networks talking about the warning signs and symptoms of MIS-C, WMAR Baltimore reported. “One of my biggest regrets back then,” English said, “is maybe I didn’t give her enough time in the hospital.”Last year, European countries in addition to the US reported on a number of children suffering from Kawasaki disease, another rare inflammatory syndrome that is linked to the coronavirus.The symptoms of the dangerous syndrome include persistent fever, inflammation, poor function in one or more organs and other shock-like symptoms.Meanwhile in Israel, a number of children were hospitalized after suffering from another coronavirus-linked syndrome called PIMS-TS, which affects various systems in the body. Its symptoms include, abdominal pain, rashes and dysfunction of vital organs. The syndrome has been seen world-wide, and doctors in Israel originally compared the disease to Kawasaki disease.The disease "usually affects children under the age of five," according to Dr. Eli Shapiro, director of Pediatric Intensive Care at Kaplan Medical Center. "The first cases were discovered in London in eight children, one of whom was 14 years old and died of the disease... The researchers are attributing this syndrome to a late immune response to the coronavirus."Leon Sverdlov and Sarah Chemla contributed to this report.
