Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in U.S. Children and Adolescents
Study (n=186) reports multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (median age 8.3 years) associated with SARS-CoV-2 led to serious and life-threatening illness in 135 (73%) previously healthy children and adolescents and 164 (88%) were hospitalised.
Source:
New England Journal of Medicine
Resource links:
Editorial:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2023158
Dufort et al study:
SPS commentary:
Authors of a related editorial highlight that as the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has evolved, case reports have appeared describing children with unusual febrile illnesses that have features of Kawasaki’s disease, toxic shock syndrome, acute abdominal conditions, and encephalopathy, along with other reports of children with fever, elevated inflammatory markers, and multisystem involvement. They state it is now apparent that these reports were describing different clinical presentations of paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); a new childhood inflammatory disorder.
A second report by Dufort and colleagues has been published in this journal, which also describes the epidemiology and clinical features of the new disorder in New York.