Doctors in Britain, Italy and Spain have been warned to look out for a rare inflammatory condition in children that is possibly linked to the new coronavirus.
Earlier this week, Britain’s Paediatric Intensive Care Society issued an alert to doctors that in the past three weeks, there has been an increase in the number of children with “a multisystem inflammatory state requiring intensive care” across the country.
The group said there was “growing concern” that either a COVID-19 related syndrome was emerging in children or that a different, unidentified disease might be responsible.
Photo: AFP
“We already know that a very small number of children can become severely ill with COVID-19, but this is very rare,” Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health president Russell Viner said.
“New diseases may present in ways that surprise us and clinicians need to be made aware of any emerging evidence of particular symptoms,” he said.
The cases were also reported to have features of toxic shock syndrome or Kawasaki disease, a rare blood vessel disorder.
Only some of the children tested positive for COVID-19, so scientists are unsure if these rare symptoms are caused by the novel coronavirus or by something else.
Health officials estimate there have been about 10 to 20 such cases in Britain and the National Health Service (NHS) England said that it is urgently investigating the reports.
Spain’s Association of Pediatrics has made a similar warning, telling doctors that in recent weeks, there had been a number of school-age children suffering from “an unusual picture of abdominal pain, accompanied by gastrointestinal symptoms” that could lead within hours to shock, low blood pressure and heart problems.
“It is a priority to recognize these [symptoms] to urgently refer these patients to a hospital,” the association said.
In Italy, Angelo Ravelli of Gaslini Hospital and a member of the Italian Pediatricians Society, sent a note to 10,000 colleagues with related concerns.
He and his team reported an unusual increase in the number of patients with Kawasaki disease, adding that some children had COVID-19 or had contacts with confirmed virus cases.
Kawasaki symptoms include a high temperature that lasts for five days or more, a rash and swollen glands in the neck, the NHS said.
While the reports were concerning, there was still no solid evidence that the rare syndrome was caused by COVID-19, said James Gill, an honorary clinical lecturer at Warwick Medical School.
“Regardless of source, multisystem inflammatory diseases are exceptionally serious for children and already stretched intensive care teams, so keeping an extra eye out for new symptoms arising in the patients we see is always a good thing,” he said.
Some possible cases have also been reported in France and Belgium.
The WHO said it was attempting to gather more information on any new, coronavirus-related syndrome in children from its global network of doctors, but had not received any official reports about it.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS