British Columbia has reported the first ever confirmed case of a multisystem inflammatory syndrome in a child seen in the province.
The news was reported by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry at a press briefing on Thursday, who added that the child who had the syndrome was under the age of five and has since fully recovered.
Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) is a rare syndrome developed in reaction to a virual infection and has symptoms that may look like Kawasaki syndrome but only appear in children who have tested positive for COVID-19 or have developed antibodies for the pandemic virus.
Symptoms include a prolonged fever, stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting, rashes, and sometimes inflammation of the hands and feet.
To date, Henry says a total of 17 children under the age of 19 have been assessed for MIS-C after they displayed symptoms of the syndrome and required hospitalization.
But only one had developed antibodies for COVID-19 and was therefore confirmed to have had MIS-C.
She added that symptoms of the syndrome usually arrive several weeks after a child has been infected with COVID-19.
“We think, but we’re not entirely sure, that MIS-C and Kawasaki syndrome are associated with inflammatory processes that happen in the body, particularly blood vessels, after a person is infected with virus,” said Henry.
“It’s a syndrome which means there’s combination of different things, and we don’t know exactly what’s causing it.”
