“There’s definitely a correlation between the number of COVID-19 cases and subsequent number of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children.”
--Dr. Nihal Godiwala, pediatric intensive care physician, Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor at LSU School of Medicine.
First seen after the first major coronavirus surge in the U.S., Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, MIS-C, is a rare, deadly, affliction.
It’s basically a body’s response to the fight against COVID-19.
It’s been seen in kids across the Gulf South, according to Dr. Nihal Godiwala.
“In Louisiana we started seeing this roughly four-to-six weeks after we had surges of adult COVID-19 cases,” Dr. Godiwala says. “This constellation of symptoms included multi-organ inflammation, high fever, usually accompanied by a rash, and some vague abdominal symptoms, whether it’s abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation.”
Dr. Godiwala says, “We saw a number of children from all over the state and the Gulf South region end up in our hospitals and our ICU with pretty ill appearing presentations and bio-markers that were off the chart.”
Dr. Godiwala says he worked with researchers and other physicians from across the country on a response to what they were seeing: “We developed a diagnostic algorithm as well as a treatment plan to counter act the systemic effects of this inflammatory cascade.”
The treatment protocol is working well, according to Godiwala: “…It really has worked out well with a variety of physicians and my colleagues in the Allergy-Immunology Department, Infectious Disease, Cardiology, and Critical Care.”
Children are responding well to the treatment, which includes hydro-steroids, aspirin, intravenous immunoglobulin, which all work to quiet down the inflammatory cascade doctors have observed in children afflicted with MIS-C.
Meanwhile the research goes on: “I can directly attest to on-going studies in major centers across the country, as well as LSU, where we’re studying the role of inflammation and treatment.”
Still, Dr. Godiwala says, the numbers are creeping upward, “Probably in the last few weeks we’ve seen a few more as statewide infection has seemed to go up as well,” he says.
Godiwala reiterates this is still a rare condition, but, “We have one-to-children in the hospital, some are in the ICU for as long as a week, if not longer, getting treatment and getting mechanical ventilation, and cardiac support.”
He says knowledge about this affliction is still in the early stages, “There’s a lot of research going on. This is a whole new avenue of medical research and science that’s really come up in the last few months.”
