coronavirus recovery
Image: Victoria_Borodinova (Pixabay License)

Children May Develop Dangerous MIS-C After Recovery from Coronavirus

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the majority of the instructions were aimed at the prevention of contracting and further spread of the virus as well as treatment at home. However, researchers and health experts are now learning that the guidelines are not sufficient and should also be extended to post coronavirus recovery care as returning to normal life can often be difficult due to the development of complications associated with the infection.

Till now, a number of different health issues have been reported by doctors from different hospitals around the world which may range from continued difficulty in breathing after treatment to the development of severe heart-related conditions such as myocarditis.

Even if several weeks have passed since recovery, a person who has had the infection is still susceptible to having complications regardless of the current health status.

As the current evidence suggests, the coronavirus infection is likely to be more severe and cause more adverse effects on the body in people from certain groups such as older adults or those with underlying health conditions as well as weakened immune systems.

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However, doctors have noted that even the healthiest patients with no record of chronic medical conditions developed dangerous health problems as a result of having the coronavirus infection weeks after recovering from it. This also includes younger adults and even athletes.

Now, another associated adverse effect of the infection has been noted. Just like adults, some children can also have adverse effects on health but they may be very different.

For instance, several cases of children developing pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PIMS), which is also known as the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children or MIS-C, after recovering from coronavirus are being reported rapidly.

MIS-C is a relatively new disease that has been also been discovered at the beginning of the year. Though there is little research on the health conditions, doctors know that the risk of developing it is high in all children who have had the coronavirus infection even if the infection did not reach a ‘severe’ stage.

In fact, children with mild infection or no symptoms at all can have MIS-C as well. In some cases, doctors only found that a child had coronavirus after diagnosis of MIS-C.

At the moment, health experts know that MIS-C causes severe inflammation in the body and can affect most organs ranging from the heart, lungs, eyes, to the kidneys and skin.

In accordance with the findings of a review, which has been recently published in the journal EClinical Medicine, on the disease, the inflammation in MIS-C can be worse than other health conditions that have similar effects on the body, such as the Toxic Shock Syndrome and Kawasaki disease.

Since MIS-C affects multiple organs of the body at the same time, it is often difficult to diagnose in children. Although the mortality rate is not as high, doctors suggest getting medical attention if a child starts displaying signs such as fever after coronavirus recovery.

With medical help, children can recover from MIS-C. However, the inability to get help in time can be life-threatening as the inflammation spreads fastly.