One of the most famous complications of Covid in children is multisystem inflammatory syndrome. This is what you need to know about him

A fragment of the book “Fediatrics. What to do if you have a child "

In April 2022, the publishing house Individuum published a reprint of the book by the pediatrician Fedor Katasonov “Fediatry. What to do if you have a child ” (earlier the book was called“ Fediatrics. A Sprinking approach to the child ”). A lot of additions included in the new edition and a separate part dedicated to Covid appeared. "Medusa" publishes the chapter from it under the name "is it worth being afraid of multisystem inflammatory syndrome."

In addition to the growth of severe cases of Covid among children, the media has another horror story-a children's multisystem inflammatory syndrome (DMVS or Mis-C in foreign literature). This is a rare condition in which, after a covid, some kind of immune failure occurs and inflammation occurs in different organs and tissues. DMVS can affect the heart, lungs, kidneys, digestive organs, blood vessels, skin, eyes and even the central nervous system.

The emergence of references to the DMVS in the media fell on the well -prepared pandemia soil of fear of coronavirus, which now involves fear for children. Among many parents, panic began, they began to look for the symptoms of their children who have gleamed by Covid. However, the real danger of the DMVS is quite low and comparable with many other complications that can occur in children as a result of much more familiar infections like influenza, chickenpox, core, tick -borne borreliosis and even infectious mononucleosis.

The frequency of the occurrence of DMVS after Covid is unknown today. Foreign sources describe it with the word "rarely." But some other numbers are known: from the beginning of the pandemic to November 1, 2021 in the United States, the DMVS was diagnosed in 5500 children, 48 children died from it. That is, in the United States, the mortality rate of DMVS is just above 0.8%, while in general in the world the mortality rate is estimated at about 1.7%. I think that many of the lethal cases are associated with late diagnostics, because with timely recognition, the DMVS is good for treatment. Most often, children from five to 13 years old suffer from DMVS.

For comparison: from influenza for one season 2019/2020, 199 children's deaths were registered in the USA. That is, the flu, from which even quite priority families are most reluctant to vaccinate children, killed four times more children in the same country than the DMVS for the entire pandemic.

Therefore, I do not share panic fear of this state, but I recommend replacing it with adequate alertness. In time, recognized DMVS leaves little chance of poor forecast.

What signs should encourage you to see a doctor to exclude the DMVS?

The basic features (almost everyone) is a covid transferred or contact with a patient with a Covid in the last six weeks + fever for more than a day (sometimes they write that for more than three to four days).

If two or more symptoms from the following list are added to these signs, you need to contact a doctor to exclude DMVS: abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, rash, redness of the sclera (eye proteins), weakness, dizziness, tachycardia, redness and edema of the limbs, lips, tongue.

If the child has the following signs, it is necessary to seek emergency help: the inability to wake up or raise from bed, disturbance of consciousness, violation of breathing, pale or blue, acute severe abdominal pain, a feeling of urgent compression of the chest.

Even the presence of such signs in many cases will not mean the development of DMVS, but it is necessary to check it. DMVS can also develop after a asymptomatic covid, so remember all the possible contacts of your children with people sick with Covid.

Occasionally, DMVS is also manifested by less typical symptoms. For example, cases of acute blindness are described caused by inflammation of the optic nerve after a Covid. Personally, I met with one case that caused large diagnostic difficulties precisely because this is an atypical option. Other rare forms will probably appear. So far, there are still too few people to say that we know all the faces of DMVS. A complete description of this syndrome is still ahead.

DMVS develops due to immune disorders after the virus has left the body, so the DMVS is not contrast and does not require insulation. Neither predict nor prevent DMVS. The only aggravating factor that reliably increases the risk of DMVS is obesity. The only measure of prevention is to protect the family from Covid itself, that is, the most extensive immunization (to instill all households who have no contraindications and age restrictions) and the observance of anti -epidemic measures. Prevention for children already ill with Covid does not exist.