In May, doctors announced they were seeing a new and rare coronavirus complication in children. Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta warns, it’s appearing in adults, too.
Called MIS-C, which stands for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, the complication manifests roughly two to four weeks after a coronavirus infection. Experts suspect that children who develop this syndrome were exposed to the virus and that their bodies mounted an exaggerated immune response, the AJC’s Helena Oliviero wrote.
Symptoms are similar to toxic shock and Kawasaki disease: fever, rashes, swollen glands and, in severe cases, heart inflammation.
Since June, several case reports have described a similar syndrome in adults. The CDC’s review describes 27 patients who had cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, dermatologic and neurologic symptoms without severe respiratory illness and who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Much like MIS-C, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Adults — MIS-A — appeared two to five weeks after COVID-19.
The 16 people studied by the CDC ranged in age from 21 to 50; nine were women. Five were reported as Hispanic, nine as African American, one as Asian and one as a United Kingdom–born man of African ethnicity. Nine patients had no reported underlying medical conditions; six were obese; one had poorly controlled diabetes mellitus type 2; two had hypertension; and one had obstructive sleep apnea. Eight patients had documented respiratory illness before developing symptoms of MIS-A.
Ten patients required intensive care, and two patients died, the CDC reported.
Another similarity to MIS-C and COVID-19, the CDC found, was that MIS-A disproportionately affects minorities.
“All but one of the patients with MIS-A described in this report belonged to racial or ethnic minority groups. Long-standing health and social inequities have resulted in increased risk for infection and severe outcomes from COVID-19 in communities of color,” the CDC report states. “MIS-C has also been reported disproportionately in these communities. Because patients described in this review represent a convenience sample from a small number of jurisdictions, conclusions cannot be made regarding the true burden or determinants of MIS-A in different groups; further research is needed.”
The CDC’s conclusion is not only the need for more research, but also that “the recognition of MIS-A reinforces the need for prevention efforts to limit spread of SARS-CoV-2.”
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