Everything You Need To Know About the Mysterious Coronavirus-Related Illness Affecting Children

While coronavirus is bringing the world to its knees, another mysterious blood illness related to this virus have also been seen in children across the United States.

The doctors are calling it “pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome” and it presents similarly to Kawasaki disease, a rare but treatable condition that causes inflammation in blood vessels. It seems to affect the heart of those who may have been infected with COVID-19 but does not include the landmark symptoms: coughing and shortness of breath.

The symptoms include: a prolonged fever lasting more than five days, severe abdominal pain, diarrhea or vomiting, patchy blue or pale skin discoloration, trouble breathing or rapid breathing, lethargy and rapid heart rate.
Torres added that children can present with this mysterious illness up to six weeks after recovering from coronavirus. And while it’s early and doctors are still learning more, the death rate seems to be around 0.1 percent.

However, NBC News medical correspondent Dr. John Torres says thet “no one’s exactly sure how it relates to COVID, and they’re not entirely sure all of those cases are related to COVID, but in medical parlance, we call it correlation without causation.”

“They think this has to do with kids’ immune systems going into hyperactive overdrive, which is different than adults’ systems, [which] can’t get hyperactive when they have COVID.”