Coronavirus Latest: Philadelphia-Area Hospitals Seeing Children With Mystery Illness Possibly Linked To COVID-19
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There are growing concerns over a mystery illness that strikes children and doctors think it could be linked to COVID-19. Hospitals in the Philadelphia area are now seeing children with this mystery illness.
In New York City, health officials issued an alert after more than a dozen children ended up in intensive care.
Fourteen-year-old Jack McMorrow developed a rash on his hands, then a fever over 104 degrees. He was rushed to a New York ICU and tested positive for COVID-19.
"His heart rate was over 160," said John McMorrow, Jack's father. "It was the scariest point in my life. There was nothing anyone could do. They prepared me for the worst."
Jack finally responded to a steroid treatment.
Eleven-year-old Juliet Daly of New Orleans also had COVID-19 and went into cardiac arrest.
"They had to do two minutes of CPR on her. And then they got her back, thank God," said Jennifer Daly, Juliet's mother.
Researchers are now investigating COVID cases in children with symptoms of a mysterious illness. It resembles Kawasaki disease, which causes inflammation throughout the body.
The New York City Health Department alert describes a "pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome." Symptoms include:
- persistent fever
- rash
- swollen lymph nodes
- and inflammation of the heart, eyes, mouth and skin
"We're not, at this time, clear from a literature standpoint what's causing the damage," said Dr. Ishminder Kaur with St. Christopher's Hospital for Children.
Dr. Kaur says they've treated two children with symptoms linked to severe inflammation.
"One seemed to fit into the Kawasaki disease category, the other one seemed to fall more into the toxic shock syndrome category, but both being a manifestation of a hyper-inflammatory response from the body," she said.
While this mystery illness is concerning, health officials want parents to know the vast majority of children who get COVID-19 do not have serious complications.
It's not clear yet if these inflammatory illnesses are directly linked to COVID-19, but given the timing, health officials are looking very closely at a possible connection.
They want more answers before kids head to summer camp or school in the fall. They say it's too soon to make any firm decisions about that.
