Second COVID-19-linked illness MIS-C confirmed in B.C.

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130)  — A second child in B.C. has come down with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare syndrome related to COVID-19.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed.

The cause is not known.

Children who are hospitalized with symptoms, including stomach illness, rash and inflammation, are given a serology test to see if they’ve had COVID-19.

Related stories:

• B.C. reports eight suspected cases of rare COVID-19-linked syndrome in kids

• Canadian doctors tracking rare childhood illness associated with coronavirus

B.C.’s first case was confirmed mid-October. The patient was a child under the age of five who has fully recovered.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry explained said in October that the syndrome shows up weeks or months after a child has had the virus — similar to Kawasaki disease showing up after a child has had the flu. Kawasaki affects children’s blood vessels and the cause is also unknown.

“We will continue our ongoing monitoring of any child who is hospitalized with the syndromes that meet the case definition and our pediatricians at children’s and women’s hospitals have been an incredible team of experts supporting children and parents around the province to make sure that we understand what it happening here with this,” she said Oct. 15.

Henry also said then that there were 16 other suspected cases of MIS-C, but those were investigated and ruled out.

“Initially we were only reporting confirmed cases but in the summer we changed our monitoring to report cases under investigation to be aligned with both the Canadian and WHO case definitions and to make sure that we could monitor all of the children who might have been affected by this.”

Be aware but not worried: pediatric cardiologist

Dr. Kevin Harris who is a pediatric cardiologist at the BC Children’s Hospital tells NEWS 1130, parents do not need to worry but they do need to be informed about the very rare inflammatory syndrome.

Harris says parents can be assured the symptoms that something is wrong are obvious – including ongoing fever, vomiting and diarrhea, shortness of breath, rash with red fingers and toes and eyes and swelling of lips hands or feet

“The good news is that most children recover from this illness and those that have more significant illnesses like heart dysfunction often have recovery of completely normal heart function even by the time they leave hospital,” he says.

The odds of developing the post-COVID inflammatory syndrome are extremely low according to Harris.

“We’ve had over a thousand children that’ve been diagnosed with COVID-19 and only two children have been reported with MIS-C and this is kind of reflective of similar patterns that we’ve seen in other jurisdictions around the world,” he adds.

A number of other cases were investigated Harris says but found not to be MIS-C.

Canadian doctors began tracking MIS-C earlier in May after it was reported in children in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and the United States.