Coronavirus is causing deadly inflammatory disease in some children, study finds

A deadly new inflammatory syndrome is ‘manifesting’ in some children who test positive for coronavirus, though the condition is rare, a British study suggests.

Scientists investigated the potential link after the World Health Organisation (WHO) asked its global network of clinicians to be on alert for the rare phenomenon, which causes a toxic shock-style reaction. The alert came after UK medics noticed the syndrome, which causes fever and a rash, emerging in some hospitalised children who had also been infected with Covid-19

The study, published in the Lancet Journal, examined eight cases of children admitted to intensive care with symptoms of toxic shock syndrome and found four of them had ‘known family exposure to coronavirus’ while all eight tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies.

The children, aged four to 14, were all treated in intensive care at Evelina London Children’s Hospital. One of the patients, a boy aged 14, died from a stroke while on life support, though the others have since been discharged from hospital.

All had displayed similar symptoms, including unrelenting fever of up to 40C, a variable rash, conjunctivitis, and generalised pain. A common clinical feature was inflammation of the heart and blood vessels, which caused one child to have a ‘giant coronary aneurysm’ after being discharged. 

Study authors said the clinical picture ‘represents a new phenomenon’ which is ‘manifesting as a hyperinflammatory syndrome with multiorgan involvement similar to Kawasaki disease shock syndrome’.

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Dr Jeremy Rossman, a virologist at the University of Kent, told the Daily Mail the study was ‘very concerning’.

But, professor of infectious diseases at Brighton and Sussex medical school, Jon Cohen said it was still far too early to jump to conclusions regarding the link between the syndrome and Covid-19.

He stressed there is a wide variety of factors that could cause toxic-shock syndrome.

He said: ‘During the week that the report was being peer reviewed, the same team saw another 12 patients.

‘All the patients tested negative for (Covid-19) but 10 of the 20 were positive for antibody, suggesting that they had been exposed at some time.

‘Naturally [this] raises the suspicion of a ‘new’ clinical syndrome in children associated with coronavirus.

‘This suspicion is underlined by the fact that six of the eight were of Afro-Caribbean descent, five were boys, and seven of the eight were clinically obese.

‘These three characteristics align with several putative risk factors for coronavirus infection.’

However, he said media reports that followed the warning about toxic shock syndrome resulted in similar clusters being described in several other specialist centres,

He said this ‘lends credence to the fact that this is indeed a new, but thankfully rare, concerning clinical syndrome’.

Consultant at Southampton Children’s Hospital, Dr Sanjay Patel agreed the syndrome was rare in coronavirus patients, saying ‘it remains extremely unlikely that a child will become unwell with Covid-19, and it’s even more unlikely that a child will become unwell with this condition’.

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