Corona: Experts Fear An Increase In Diseases In Children

The spread of the British corona virus mutation B.1.1.7 could also bring children and adolescents back to the fore: Experts fear that more young people will now become ill and will also be confronted with more severe courses.

So far, the elderly and people with certain pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure have been affected by severe Covid-19 courses, while younger people have hardly appeared at risk. The German pediatricians use a population register to monitor how many children have severe Covid-19 disease. So far, only a few children have become seriously ill and have to be treated in the clinic. Children with previous illnesses have a higher risk of a severe course. Up until now, kindergarten and primary school children have fallen ill less often than infants and older children. In adolescents, the risk approaches that of adults with increasing age.

Children develop different symptoms than adolescents and adults

Many children infected with Sars-CoV-2 show no symptoms at all. And if they do, these are mostly unspecific and can easily be misinterpreted. Children mainly suffer from fever, cough and sore throat, and occasionally stomach pain. Adolescents are more likely to develop symptoms like adults, with fever, aching limbs and often a taste and smell disorder. If children are infected with corona viruses, they can also infect others - regardless of whether they are sick themselves.

Severe disease progression possible even after an initially mild illness. A delayed malfunction of the immune system can lead to severe disease progression in some children. They become so seriously ill two to four weeks after infection that they may even have to be treated in the intensive care unit. The clinical picture is reminiscent of the so-called Kawasaki syndrome, which pediatricians have mainly known as a rare disease in very young children. The children have a high fever, inflammation of the mucous membranes, swelling of the lymph nodes, a rash and red hands. With Covid-19, these phenomena sometimes also occur in significantly older children.

The clinical picture is called Pediatric Inflammatory Multi system Syndrome, or PIMS for short. Translated, this means an inflammatory disease in various organs in children. So far, around 400 cases of PIMS have been counted in Germany, and in Great Britain around 100 seriously ill children with PIMS come to the clinics every week. It is tricky that PIMS can occur not only in children who were previously ill with Covid-19, but also after asymptomatic courses. However, quick, effective treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs can help most small PIMS patients well.