In May, two parents stormed their 8-year-old daughter Xitlali Vasquez to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles because of an elevated temperature and delirium that put her daughter into a feverish sleep that lasted for several days. The 8-year-old was then taken to a specialist intensive care unit to treat the inflammation around her heart and arteries.
Rosa VasquezXitlali’s mother said, “It was like a nightmare.” She added, “There was a time when I thought she was going to die.”
Xitlali was one of the first children in Los Angeles County to be diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a rare and potentially fatal disease known as MIS-C this infects children exposed to the coronavirus.
Seven months after their diagnosis, at least 45 other children in the county were diagnosed with MIS-C and one has died.
Much like the coronavirus that infected the majority of black and Latin American communities, MIS-C has also disproportionately infected black and Latin American children.
According to the Los Angeles County Health Department, Latino children like Xitlali account for 73% of registered cases and Latino children account for 40% of MIS-C cases worldwide. According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionBlack children form the second largest group with 36% of all cases.
The Mayo Clinic points out that differences in access to health care and the likelihood of genetic hazards may play a role in the discrepancy, but says more studies are needed to determine why black and Latin American children are more likely to have MIS-C than others.
In Xitlali’s case, the girl may have contracted the virus from her parents. Rosa and her husband both appeared to have COVID-19 symptoms in late March. However, the couple tested negative for the virus. None of her 12- and 24-year-old sons fell ill, nor did Vasquez’s 68-year-old mother.
Xitlali, who often stands by her mother’s side, didn’t show signs of the coronavirus until weeks later when her eyes were bloodshot and a fever drove the girl to delirium.
With regard to MIS-C, including its long-term consequences, it remains unclear whether children are genetically predisposed to the disease and whether the number of cases could be greater. Researchers suspect that a diagnosis was made in some children Kawasaki The disease between January and May, a rare inflammatory disease that affects approximately 5,500 children each year in the United States, may have had MIS-C instead.
What is evident is that cases of MIS-C are closely linked to spikes in COVID-19 infections, a compound that doctors say could easily offset any potential spike during vacation given the sustained spike taken into account in coronavirus cases. According to the California Department of Health, seven new children were diagnosed with the condition across the state in the past week.
Dr. Jackie SzmuszkoviczXitlali’s Pediatric Cardiologist at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital said, “Given the number of coronavirus cases we’re currently seeing in Los Angeles, I expect more children with MIS-C to be hospitalized in the next few weeks.” She said: “We are at a critical moment right now.”
According to a Times The mysterious syndrome has killed at least 23 children and infected more than 1,280 in the United States, according to the CDC’s data. Since July, the numbers have risen by more than 125 percent. The data was last recorded on December 4th and will be updated in January.
MIS-C has been diagnosed in patients under one year of age and up to 20 years of age. The majority are 7 to 9.
According to the State Department of Public Health, at least 152 children in California have developed MIS-C.
A child died from the virus this month. Health officials at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital where the patient was treated said the child had “complex pre-existing heart disease” and died of MIS-C-related complications. The death marks the county’s first death related to COVID-19.
The state health department does not separate MIS-C deaths from COVID-19 deaths. Of the 22,000 deaths related to COVID-19 in California, three were children 17 and under.
While the condition is unusual, it can be extreme and potentially fatal. Children usually develop signs of MIS-C around four to five weeks after exposure to coronavirus, which often go undetected as the majority of children are asymptomatic carriers. Fever, stomach and neck pain, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, swollen lips, bloodshot eyes, and tiredness are all signs of MIS-C.
Doctors say children arrived at the hospital with a fever, only to be discharged and return days later in shock. Others were admitted with shortness of breath and must be supplied with oxygen or connected to a ventilator. A diagnosis of MIS-C is generally only made after a child tests positive for antibodies to COVID-19.
“There are children who are not sick enough to be accepted. Then there are children who go straight into shock from multiple organ failure, ”he said Dr. Jane Burns, Professor and Director of the Kawasaki Disease Research Center at UC San Diego. “We don’t understand why the heart muscles in these children generally pump poorly, but that can be reversed very quickly with the right cocktail of inflammation treatment. You can stand on death’s doorstep in a day. “
An August CDC study said obesity was the most commonly identified underlying condition in children with MIS-C. However, the study found that two-thirds of the children diagnosed at this point did not have any pre-existing medical conditions.
During her investigation in January, Vasquez said Xitlali received a clean health bill. After her battle with MIS-C, she developed type 1 diabetes, which Vasquez believes is due in part to MIS-C-related inflammation of the pancreas.
Health professionals agree that the secret to reducing the severity of MIS-C is with early care. A combination of low disease awareness, avoidance of hospitals and doctor’s offices amid the pandemic, and the fact that initial symptoms sometimes appear in the GI tract near the flu has left some children in the emergency room after mild symptoms have turned extreme.
“Please do not hesitate to look after your child if they are sick,” said Szmuszkovicz. “The length of stay will be shorter if we can bring the inflammation under control earlier.”
Vasquez, who still shudders at the memory of that May day as the doctors worked desperately to restart Xitlali’s heart, knows only too well how quickly things can deteriorate.
“Our children get sick and we want to treat them with home remedies and Tylenol, not knowing they could die without getting them to the right place,” she said.
Xitlali recently turned to her mother when a news report appeared on television.
“There was a little child who died of what I had,” she said to her mother in disbelief.
The fear for the young girl remains. But she’s alive. And her mother is grateful for that.
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