Three children are hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, after suffering from a rare heart-wrenching syndrome on the wake of recovering from coronavirus. One is in critical condition and two others are in moderate condition.
"This is a new syndrome that children can develop after being infected with coronavirus and hundreds of cases have been observed around the world, a small number of which included severe complications and hospitalization in intensive care," Prof. Yehuda Adler, chairman of the European Union of Membrane and Myocardial Diseases, told N12.
The syndrome, called PIMS-TS, affects various systems in the body. Its symptoms are the following: high fever, abdominal pain, rashes and dysfunction of vital organs.
At the beginning of April-May, the syndrome began to appear more often in the world, especially for children who recovered from coronavirus. About a thousand of such cases have been reported worldwide, and between 20 and 30 in Israel.
"Currently, three children have been hospitalized in the Kaplan Intensive Care Unit, and have been diagnosed with PIMS - an overreaction of the immune system that attacks children who have recovered from Corona. One girl is in a difficult but stable condition, and two children are currently in moderate condition," Dr. Eli Shapiro, director of Pediatric Intensive Care at Kaplan Medical Center, said.
"The children received intensive treatment with appropriate drugs for this type of disease, in order to try to calm their immune system. We are monitoring their situation."
"At first, we compared this disease to the 'Kawasaki' disease, which usually affects children under the age of five. 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.
"The most common symptoms are high fever, rash and red eyes," he continued. "The syndrome appeared between two and four weeks after the coronavirus infection."
"Parents should be careful, even when the child is completely healthy and doesn't show any symptoms," he concluded.