4 children develop inflammatory syndrome linked to COVID-19, Fort Worth hospital says
Four children have been treated for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, a rare health condition connected to COVID-19, in the last 11 days, Cook Children’s Medical Center said Tuesday.
Three of the patients, who are between 6 and 14 years old, have been released from the Fort Worth hospital. One patient is in its pediatric intensive care unit.
One of the children tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and three tested negative, Cook Children’s said.
“We believe all of these cases are related to COVID-19,” Dr. Nicholas Rister, an infectious diseases physician, said in a statement. “The three negative results are evidence of how far the infection had progressed, resulting in the inflammatory syndrome.”
The Cook infectious diseases team is also reviewing increased reports of unexplained fevers in the Fort Worth area.
The children with the inflammatory syndrome presented with symptoms that resembled a severe case of Kawasaki disease, Rister said.
Kawasaki disease is an illness that creates inflammation in blood vessels with no proven cause, but is generally thought to follow various infections after they have otherwise resolved, Cook Children’s said.
The patients arrived at Cook Children’s following exposure to COVID-19 and had symptoms including fever, abdominal pain and outward evidence of inflammation including diffuse rashes, conjunctivitis and swelling. In the more severe cases, there was evidence of multi-organ dysfunction including respiratory distress, low blood pressures, liver and kidney damage, and altered mental status.
“Of particular concern to us is inflammation of the heart and surrounding major blood vessels which is also seen in Kawasaki’s disease. We have seen this same thing in several of these COVID inflammatory disease patients,” Rister said in the statement. “Minimizing the degree of inflammation in these children, while providing supportive care for any organ damage, has been a key component of treatment.”
Tarrant County public health authorities reported on Tuesday the coronavirus-related deaths of seven Fort Worth residents.
There have been 4,643 COVID-19 cases in Tarrant County, including 130 deaths and 1,586 recoveries.
“We want parents to be aware of these cases as COVID-19 continues to spread in our community,” Rister said. “Unexplained fevers for several days and evidence of generalized inflammation may be signs of this illness.”
