Mysterious COVID syndrome in kids attacks their kidneys in about half the cases
Doctors have long known about the bloodshot eyes. The strange rashes. and therefore the cardiac issues.
But other aspects of a mysterious COVID-19 syndrome in children still baffle doctors as cases of the rare disease slowly rise in New Jersey.
Health officials recently discovered acute kidney injury is among the foremost severe outcomes in patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). the speed of acute kidney injury is critical among all kids who have COVID-19, but especially among those with MIS-C, which usually emerges a few months after they contract the coronavirus.
“Somewhere within the neighborhood of 20% — give or take — of youngsters with COVID infection during the course of their COVID infection will have some acute kidney injury. Kids who haven't any prior history of kidney problems” said Dr. Kenneth Lieberman, chief of pediatric nephrology and professor of pediatrics at Hackensack Meridian School of drugs. “That risk rises to shut to 40% or 50% with MIS-C.”
Lieberman also mentioned a recent study published within the journal Kidney International. it had been a retrospective analysis that studied the medical records of 152 children 18 years and younger from four ny hospitals who had COVID-19 or MIS-C. It found 11.8% of the youngsters developed acute kidney injury, including 18.2% of MIS-C cases.
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The inflammatory syndrome — caused by a drag in children’s immune systems after a coronavirus infection — can produce a spread of symptoms: Red or bloodshot eyes. Rashes. Swollen hands and feet. Long-lasting fevers. Serious heart issues.
But researchers also are examining how it impacts the kidneys — even in children with no history of issues.
Health experts have known a few times that there’s an increased risk of kidney injury in adults hospitalized with COVID-19.
“We know that the more severe the disease that you simply have that lands you within the hospital, the greater the prospect of your kidneys becoming impaired in how,” Lieberman said.
Simply put: “The kidneys can take successful when the remainder of you is real sick,” he added.
However, Lieberman cautioned that roughly 90% of coronavirus-related kidney issues in children are mild or moderate.
“The overwhelming majority of AKI in these children gets all better,” he said. “It resolves.”
However, children with preexisting kidney issues are especially in danger “for more severe COVID manifestations,” Lieberman noted.
He said it’s unclear what the long-term effect could also be for youngsters who develop kidney issues. MIS-C remains new and rare, requiring further study.
”Since most of the youngsters suffer only light to moderate AKI, I feel that it'll be recoverable,” Lieberman said. “However, I don’t know that yet needless to say, because we haven’t had enough follow-up time.”
Hackensack’s Department of Pediatrics recently formed a post-COVID-19 follow-up clinic specifically to review pediatric patients and answer these questions, he said.
MIS-C is a particularly rare condition. Only 106 cases are recorded in New Jersey with no fatalities. But a spike in cases — attributed to a surge in coronavirus infections from the autumn through January — lifted the entire number of youngsters with MIS-C from 88 on Feb. 14 to 104 by Feb. 24.
Nationally, 2,617 MIS-C cases are reported as of March 1, consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. quite 900 cases are announced just since Jan. 8. There are 33 deaths across the country.
One of the factors that make MIS-C so complex is it doesn’t track evenly with COVID-19 cases. The syndrome is rare. And when it does develop, it takes a few months for the illness to emerge after the kid contracted the virus.
But experts say it’s not surprising that cases still climb.
“I’m unsurprised that we still go up,” said Dr. Margaret Fisher, a pediatric communicable disease expert and special advisor to New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli. “I think that that number will go up until a month after we actually see a more dramatic drop by the cases in New Jersey.”
While there are signs of hope, the state remains in a delicate position. Some experts fear another spike in COVID-19 cases is feasible, especially with highly contagious variants spreading while some states lift restrictions.
“Right now, unfortunately, we’re quite plateauing,” Fisher said. “So, there’s still tons of transmission of the virus. What we absolutely don’t know is what role the variants will take. and that we don’t know whether the system response to the variants could be different. and since we don’t know that, I feel we actually don’t have any idea whether it'll make a difference with the MIS-C cases.”
Only time will tell, experts say, as health officials closely monitor how the variants are spreading.
“Keep in mind that MIS-C is an inflammatory response to prior infection,” said Dr. Sivia Lapidus, a pediatric rheumatologist, and professor at Hackensack Meridian School of drugs. “So it happens a couple of weeks after the preceding infection. So I feel during this illness, it’s just timely to inform if variants are influencing the image .”
She added, “I think by April we’ll have a far better sense … Predictions are that the variants are going to be more prevalent in March. So I feel by April, we’ll have a far better sense of that nationally.”
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