Governor Andrew Cuomo warned over the weekend of “truly disturbing” trend where children are developing symptoms that are similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome. As of Wednesday, there were 102 cases of an inflammatory illness in children that experts believe may be related to COVID-19.
But with only a handful of cases statewide, how concerned should the general public be that their kids will catch this illness?
Oishei Children’s Hospital does not have any direct evidence of the rare illnesses that have attacked children, though Turkovich said there were three cases that had symptoms that could be associated with it.
“The profile is not well defined,” Turkovich said. “The state is looking through those medical records now. The good news is all those kids are home and healthy now. We probably won’t be able to define that until there’s a consensus at the department of health and in the country and world on how we define this disease. ”
Dr. Steven Lana, a pediatrician and Managing Partner at Delaware Pediatrics, agreed with the governor’s assertion that this trend among some children is disturbing.
Lana said the rare symptoms that include a strong fever for multiple days, rashes, lethargy, cracked lips, and possibly red eyes, will not be subtle.
“They’re very serious,” Lana said. “They can be treated but they’re very rare.”