Several hospitals in Delhi, over the last few months, have reported symptoms similar to a rare disease called Kawasaki in children who have tested COVID-19 positive. The symptoms reported are rashes and inflammation.
Last month, some cases were reported in Mumbai as well.
Kawasaki disease is a syndrome of unknown cause and mainly affects the children under the age of 5 and leads to fever. The fever lasts for more than 5 days and blood vessels become inflamed throughout the body. Usual medications for fever do not yield any result.
The symptoms include rashes, red eyes and a swollen tongue with reddened lips among inflamed blood vessel system. It also affects coronary functions in the heart.
Kalawati Saran in Delhi, one of the country’s top children’s hospital, has seen 5-6 cases of children with Kawasaki symptoms. The children had a fever, rashes, respiratory and gastrointestinal issues. All the children had tested positive for coronavirus.
In Mumbai, a 14-years old girl was brought to the hospital with two classic Kawasaki symptoms – fever and rashes. She later tested positive for Covid-19.
The World Health Organisation, last month, labelled this new illness “multisystem inflammatory disorder”.
Since April, countries like China, US, UK, Spain and Italy have been reporting children with COVID-19 showing Kawasaki symptoms.
Dr Virendra Kumar, head of the department of paediatrics, Kalawati Saran hospital told The Indian Express,
“We are not exactly saying they were infected with Kawasaki, but they had Kawasaki-like symptoms. The children had unexplained tachycardia and some of them were in a state of shock. All these positive cases were managed in the Covid care area.”
The disease is named after Japanese paediatrician Tomisaku Kawasaki who reported the first case in a 4 years old boy in 1961. Doctor Kawasaki passed away on June 5 in Tokyo at the age of 95.