MIS-C: Some children’s hospitals see a surge in rare Covid-19 complication
He didn’t have a sore throat or cough. His Covid-19 tests came back negative, twice.
Then what had been a low-grade fever crept up to 104.4.
“That’s when I knew something was really wrong,” she said. “Some people’s children spike those types of fevers, my kids never do.”
Doctors don’t know what causes it. Often kids have Covid-19 first, but not always. The novel coronavirus doesn’t usually cause severe disease in children, but for those few kids that do go on to develop MIS-C, the condition seems to inflame different parts of the body, and it can be serious.
What doctors do know is that various children’s hospitals around the country have reported seeing a higher number of cases these past few months, even though MIS-C is considered rare.
In an update released Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there have been 2,617 MIS-C cases in the United States before March 1, and 33 children have died. That’s up from early February, when 2,060 cases and 30 deaths had been reported.
‘It scared the bejesus out of me’
In February, when her son was ill, Dunn looked MIS-C up online. Many of her son’s symptoms matched.
The CDC advises parents or caregivers to contact a doctor right away if kids have fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes or extra tiredness.
Nolan’s stomach hurt to the touch. His lips were chapped. His tongue was swollen, and by the time they were back at the pediatrician’s office, his eyes were turning bright red.
The pediatrician took one look at him, told her to leave her office and drive straight to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
“It scared the bejesus out of me,” she said.
When they got to the hospital, she asked Nolan to read the sign that told them where valet parking was. He said he couldn’t. Everything was blurry.
“He has perfect vision,” Dunn said. “I told him, ‘Oh boy, you’re really falling apart.’ “
The hospital ran lots of tests, Nolan said.
“I had every single symptom you could think of,” Nolan said. “I had an IV hooked up to me and felt fatigued and sore. My entire body just felt upset everywhere. I don’t really know how to explain it or pinpoint to a singular feeling.”
Doctors were able to pinpoint the problem and determined it was MIS-C. They treated him with a 10-hour immunoglobulin drip and started him on a steroid.
“By the next morning he was markedly better,” Dunn said.
More than half the reported MIS-C cases, 59%, were in males and most are in children and adolescents ages 1 to 14, the CDC said. Nolan is 13.
MIS-C has also disproportionately affected children of color. In its latest update, CDC said 66% of reported cases are in children who are Latino, 842 cases, or non-Hispanic Black, 746 cases.
MIS-C surges follow Covid-19 spikes
In the past few months, many children’s hospitals, not just Chicago’s, saw more cases than they had earlier in the pandemic.
“January, we just saw a huge number. We saw one a day,” said Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, chief of the Division of Pediatric Diseases at Children’s National Research Institute in Washington, DC. “And then in February, we were on track for that or even more, there’s some days we’re having two and three cases.”
The surge, DeBiasi thinks, isn’t due to the rise in variants, or any other phenomenon.
Typically, a surge in MIS-C follows a surge in Covid-19 cases.
The multidisciplinary MIS-C committee at her hospital noticed the trend, and as soon as they saw the spike in Covid-19 cases around the holidays, they prepared for the kids they knew would soon come four to six weeks later.
“You could set your calendar to it,” DeBiasi said.
Perhaps because it is so rare, some pediatricians — and the parents who come to them for help — don’t know exactly what they’re seeing. That was especially true at the start of the pandemic.
Tammie Hairston’s son, Kyree McBride, came down with a stomachache last May.
“At the time, I hadn’t heard about the MIS-C,” Hairston said.
At first, she and a few different doctors, including those in the ER, thought it was a routine stomach virus.
Even with Tylenol and Motrin, she said, Kyree’s fever wouldn’t go away.
“Instantly, I went into panic mode because my son never gets sick,” Hairston said.
When Hairston had to go back to the store for a second bottle of Tylenol and Motrin, she got even more worried. In addition to the fever, he had become lethargic, but couldn’t sleep. His heart was racing. His eyes started turning red.
When a friend called to tell her a story she’d seen on the news about MIS-C, Hairston told her son to hurry up and put clothes on. They were going to the hospital.
At Children’s National, doctors confirmed Kyree had MIS-C. He never did test positive for Covid-19, but tests detected antibodies, suggesting previous infection. Tests also showed Kyree had inflammation in his heart.
“It was terrifying,” Hairston said. “But you just have to be a mom and you have to be strong for him.”
She said their family and friends prayed he’d get…
Read More: MIS-C: Some children’s hospitals see a surge in rare Covid-19 complication