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What is MIS-C and how is it affecting America's child population?
Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children is known as MIS-C and is a rare but dangerous condition, which has apparently appeared in children after a few weeks of being infected with covid-19.
Its symptoms include inflammation or involvement of some organs such as the kidneys, brain, heart, and lungs. In the same way, the infected person may experience abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, conjunctivitis, rash and low blood pressure.
A noteworthy aspect is that due to the high number of cases of children infected by the omicron variant in January reported by children's hospitals in the United States, it has been observed that MIS-C has followed mild or asymptomatic cases of covid-19.
Recovery for most children
Many specialists have assured that the symptoms change with the region. There appears to be a large number of children who appear to recover satisfactorily from MIS-C, but it should be noted that improvement is seen mostly in vaccinated children. Unfortunately, the child population continues to be the least vaccinated.
"The first MIS-C children we saw were in May 2020. So they've already had their only follow-up, and all of those children in 2020 have done very, very well," said Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, who works at the Children's Hospital of Colorado.
However, Dr. Marian Michaels of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center appealed to the community about the importance of vaccination, and especially children. In this regard he mentioned:
"We need to get vaccinated. There is no infection in the world that has disappeared just because of having herd immunity against natural diseases. Measles did not disappear because of herd immunity. Protecting yourself and your loved ones through vaccination is really critical."
Although there is no licensed vaccine for children under 5 years of age, another way to protect them is for the adults around them to be vaccinated, since the best prevention of MIS-C, according to doctors, is to prevent the child from being infected with covid-19.
The call to parents is to observe in their children, when they are infected with covid-19, four or six weeks later, that MIS-C symptoms may begin. Some think that the symptomatology of covid-19 has returned and they can even observe different ones, but the important thing is to apply the proper treatment in time.
It should be noted that research from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in January of this year showed that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against covid-19 reduced the probability of MIS -C in 91% in children aged 12 to 18 years at the time when the delta variant predominated.
On the other hand, the CDC is known to update MIS-C case information once a month. The latest information in this regard is that as of January 31, 6,851 cases have been reported during the pandemic and 59 deaths.
