"National alert as ‘coronavirus-related condition may be emerging in children' "

[Iwalkinmyclothing]

Reading this has made me panic far more than anything else throughout this crisis so be mindful- if, like me- you are likely to become really scared and worried at the prospect of children being at serious risk due to this maybe consider not reading this article

www.hsj.co.uk/acute-care/exclusive-national-alert-as-coronavirus-related-condition-may-be-emerging-in-children/7027496.article

I'm trying to keep but the absolute number of children affected is thought to be very small front and centre in my head since reading this but I can't seem to get on top of the fear reading this has given me. There are always plenty of people on MN who have a much better understanding of medical and public health issues than me; any of you around, reading this and able to reassure a suddenly ridiculously panicked woman?

[Bluejuicyapple]

This doesn’t worry me particularly, certainly not for children with no associated problems. Very few children are admitted, for those admitted the vast vast majority are treated on the general ward. Lots have other conditions and few need more help than a bit of oxygen and mostly nothing.

Going children get ill. I’m sure far more children are hospitalised with bronchiolitis etc each year. We could worry about everything but the data says that in the highly unlikely circumstance that your child is admitted to hospital they’ll almost certainly come out of it fine. Obviously there are exceptions but it’s not a significant risk

[DaisylovesDonald]

The report posted by Mac12 (whilst it may not include all children affected) shows clearly that it really is a very very small number of children. You can also see that the vast majority of that already small number pass through hospital in a couple of days with minimal intervention.
I don’t believe that things have changed with regards to that particularly, otherwise the press would be jumping all over increased numbers of children being admitted to hospital. My take on this is that this was internal NHS communication between drs telling them to look out for a certain collection of symptoms which they have noticed more and more - not necessarily that there are A lot more cases, just that patterns are starting to emerge, and as the numbers of children have been so low it’s not that surprising that it’s taken this long for patterns to become more apparent.

[EdgarAllenCrow]

@DaisyLovesDonald

Absolutely. I'm a HCP and we get alerts like this all the time. I don't think it's helpful its been publicised at this time tbh. It wouldn't have been if it was a 'normal' time.

[Daffodil101]

Mass hysteria

[megletthesecond]

To be honest if the Chinese government said no deaths in the 0-9 group I'd take that with a hefty pinch of salt.

[Sunshinegirl82]

I’m not a conspiracy nut (I’m honestly really not) and it’s probably entirely coincidental but releasing something like this on the very day BJ is on tv telling us not to relax on the lockdown etc is interesting.

I’m not saying it’s not true, I’m sure it is, but it will have helped to emphasise the message.

[RedAzalea]

Makes no difference really does it? People die of this virus

Just keep doing what we’ve done all along....stay home

[Bimbleboo]

@EdgarAllenCrow this is what I was thinking. If we all saw medical alerts intended of hcp publically we would probably all be more fearful of life in general. Thank you for mentioning this.

[Jellycatspyjamas]

@Daffodil101 where on the thread has anyone been hysterical?

[IamMars]

Absolutely. I'm a HCP and we get alerts like this all the time. I don't think it's helpful its been publicised at this time tbh. It wouldn't have been if it was a 'normal' time.

This. Medics deal with scary stuff all the time. It's only a very small number and not really significant at population level. It is is very important for GPs to know this so that they can consider these symptoms when treating individuals presenting with these issues. But at population level that is the total number of cases over the number of dc in the population the risk is minute it does not at all scare me.

Keep doing what you are doing, stay at home unless you need to do essential shopping or go our for exercise or lovely walks, enjoy and keep away from people. Focus on being positive and pragmatic.

[VeganVeal]

I just hope there hasnt been a mutation, which now means it affects a different age group, who knows for sure?

[buttermilkwaffles]

"Prof Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, sought to reassure parents that children are generally unlikely to become very unwell due to Covid-19.

“We already know that a very small number of children can become severely ill with Covid-19 but this is very rare. Evidence from throughout the world shows us that children appear to be the part of the population least affected by this infection.

“New diseases may present in ways that surprise us, and clinicians need to be made aware of any emerging evidence of particular symptoms or of underlying conditions which could make a patient more vulnerable to the virus. However, our advice remains the same: parents should be reassured that children are unlikely to be seriously ill with Covid-19, but if they are concerned about their children’s health for any reason they should seek help from a health professional.”


www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/nhs-warns-of-rise-in-children-with-new-illness-that-may-be-linked-to-coronavirus?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

[RigaBalsam]

Thanks butter so its a concern but low risk essentially.

[Bol87]

Please bare in mind this hasn’t been reported in other countries ahead of us. Which you’d think it would have if it was significant & a major concern. It can’t just affect UK kids but not Spanish ones!

This has leaked into the press before proper research could be done. Children are unfortunately quite susceptible to virus complications such as sepsis so it probably wouldn’t be unheard of for there to unfortunate cases of kids developing complications from Covid. But most children do just have viruses & fight them off easily .. we don’t shield our kids from colds in case it happens to develop into sepsis.. at the moment, this seems relatively similar in terms of risk.

More info needed before I become concerned!

[RigaBalsam]

It has in Washington bol and Spains kids have not been out in six weeks.

[Bol87]

That may be but kids were still contracting it before Spanish & Italian etc lockdowns .. and I assume there have still been many cases of children catching it in these countries whose parents are key workers etc!

I’m not denying there may be a link but it’s irresponsible this has reached the press before they can fully conclude & my point remains that anyone can develop complications from a virus. Thankfully usually a very small number in comparison to the majority. I’ll unhappily have my mind changed if more info is presented!

[Sunshinegirl82]

This article says fewer than 20 children have presented with the symptoms in the U.K.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52439005

[RigaBalsam]

That may be but kids were still contracting it before Spanish & Italian etc lockdowns .. and I assume there have still been many cases of children catching it in these countries whose parents are key workers etc!

Dr Nazima Pathan, a consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care in Cambridge, said colleagues in Spain and Italy had been reporting similar cases: "Some of the children have presented with a septic shock type illness and rashes - the kind of presentation we would expect to see in toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease (which affects blood vessels and the heart).

[Bol87]

*also as the articles say, only some of the kids presenting with symptoms tested positive for Covid. Some didn’t 🤷🏼‍♀️ Hence why it shouldn’t have been reported & scaring parents until they know for sure!

[0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h]

I think the 7 deaths in the 10-19 age range is quite a lot. I'm glad it isn't more obviously but it's quite a lot to me.

[EdgarAllenCrow]

How is 7 'quite a lot' when the population aged 10-19 in the UK is 7.4 million?

[EdgarAllenCrow]

NHS England has said fewer than 20 cases of these unusual symptoms UK wide when the population aged 0-19 is over 15 million.

[0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h]

Edgar That number hasn't been exposed. You're comparing apples with oranges.

[Boswello]

It's very bloody worrying. They think less than 10% of the UK population have been infected. The numbers in kids are low because we are locked down and schools are shut.

[MRex]

Even if only 10% of children have been exposed so far, 20 is a tiny fraction of a percentage of 1.5 million and we must just hope it'll stay at that low level. Also if it's similar to a cytokine storm then there are existing treatments to calm down someone's system, it's odd that they haven't used the words cytokine storm though so maybe I'm misunderstanding something.