LONDON – A rare inflammatory syndrome which researchers believe to be linked to COVID-19 is a concern although it has not led to any deaths of children in the United Kingdom so far, Britain’s health ministry said on Tuesday.

Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the coronavirus pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries.

Doctors in northern Italy, one of the world’s hardest-hit areas during the pandemic, have reported extraordinarily large numbers of children under age 9 with severe cases of what appears to be Kawasaki disease, more common in parts of Asia.

Asked about the syndrome on LBC, Hancock appeared to say that some children with no underlying health conditions had died from it. But the British health ministry later clarified that he had been speaking about COVID-19 more generally.

“We are not aware of any confirmed cases of children dying from this syndrome,” a ministry spokesman said. “The minister did not say that there are confirmed cases of children dying from this syndrome.”

Hancock had said the condition was a new disease believed to have been caused by coronavirus and the COVID-19 virus.

“We’re not 100% sure because some of the people who got it hadn’t tested positive, so we’re doing a lot of research now but it is something that we’re worried about,” Hancock said.

Children were until now thought to be much less susceptible than their parents or grandparents to the most deadly complications wrought by the novel coronavirus, though the mysterious inflammatory disease noticed in Britain, Spain and Italy may demand a reassessment...Read More…

Read Also: Fears UK will become Europe’s worst-hit as daily coronavirus death toll for care homes to be released

hk.hk

