Kawasaki disease: PM orders urgent inquiry into virus killing kids

The mysterious COVID-19 illness, which has killed at least three children in the US, will now be urgently investigated by the Australian Government.

AAP and AP

4 min read

May 13, 2020 - 3:33PM

Kawasaki disease: children dead amid fears over link to COVID-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ordered an urgent investigation into a coronavirus-linked illness suspected to have killed at least three children in the US and one in the UK.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has been told to gather urgent medical advice on Kawasaki disease from Australia and overseas before political leaders meet later this week.

Kawasaki disease is the closest known illness to a disease that has developed in almost 100 American children.

“I will leave that to the medical experts to provide that advice but what they have said is there are no known cases or examples in Australia at this stage,” Health Minister Greg Hunt told Nine on Wednesday.

There are between 200 and 300 cases of Kawasaki disease diagnosed each year in Australia.

Professor Murphy says it is unlikely Australia will see a spike in cases of the mysterious disease which is similar to Kawasaki.

“It may appear in other countries with large volumes of infected people but because it’s so rare it’s unlikely to appear in Australia,” Professor Murphy told a Senate inquiry into coronavirus.

“We’ve got alerts on it and we’re clearly watching it.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ordered an urgent investigation into the mysterious illness killing children.

‘HIS BELLY HURT SO BAD HE COULDN’T SIT UP’

US mum Amber Dean had recovered from a mild bout of coronavirus and her family had just ended their home quarantine when her oldest son, nine-year-old Bobby, fell ill.

“At first it was nothing major – it seemed like a tummy bug, like he ate something that didn’t agree with him,” said Mrs Dean, who lives with her husband and three young children in the western New York town of Hornell.

“But by the next day, he couldn’t keep anything down and his belly hurt so bad he couldn’t sit up.”

At the local hospital emergency room, doctors suspected an appendix infection and sent him home with instructions to see his paediatrician.

It was only later, after Bobby’s condition took an alarming turn for the worse, that doctors realised he was among the small but growing number of children with a mysterious inflammatory syndrome thought to be related to COVID-19.

On Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York is now investigating about 100 cases of the syndrome, which affects blood vessels and organs and has symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock.

Nine-year-old Bobby Dean was admitted to hospital with severe dehydration, abdominal pain and a racing heart. Picture: Dean Family Photo via AP

Three children in the state have died and Mr Cuomo advised all hospitals to prioritise COVID-19 testing for children presenting with symptoms.

In New York City, which has reported at least 52 children sick with the syndrome, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged parents to call their paediatricians promptly if their children show symptoms including persistent fever, rash, abdominal pain and vomiting.

That’s what Bobby Dean’s family did, even though they live in Steuben County, which has only 239 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and is in a part of the state set to start reopening some workplaces from Friday.

The family doctor performed a coronavirus test the day after his trip to the emergency room, but the results would take 24 hours.

By that night, the boy’s fever had spiked, his abdomen was swollen, he was severely dehydrated and his heart was racing.

His father, Michael Dean, drove him to Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester, 90 minutes away.

“At Rochester they did a rapid COVID test and it came back positive,” Ms Dean said.

Bobby tested positive for coronavirus at the hospital and doctors diagnosed him with a paediatric inflammatory syndrome related to the virus. Picture: Dean Family Photo via AP

For the next six days, she was at his hospital bedside while Bobby was hooked up to IV lines and a heart monitor.

He came home on Mother’s Day.

“It never affected his respiratory system,” Ms Dean said. “It was his heart that it affected.” She said that inflamed lymph nodes caused the abdominal pain.

“They’re hoping he pulls through with 100 per cent recovery but they said there have been children with lasting effects.”

Children elsewhere in the US and in Europe have also been hospitalised with the condition known as paediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome. In the UK, one 14-year-old boy is believed to have died from the condition.

In New York, the syndrome has been found across a wide range of young people.

A five-year-old boy, seven-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman have died.

About 23 per cent of cases have occurred in children under age five, about 29 per cent between the ages of five and nine, about 28 per cent between ages 10 and 14 and 16 per cent between the ages of 15 and 19.

“This is a truly disturbing situation and I know parents around the state and parents around the country are very concerned about this, and they should be,” Mr Cuomo said.

“If we have this issue in New York, it’s probably in other states.”

Fortunately Bobby was able to return home on Mother’s Day. Picture: Dean Family Photo via AP

Dr Juan Salazar, the physician-in-chief at Connecticut Children’s Medical Centre, said two patients there are believed to have the condition, which he said often appears to present itself two to four weeks after a child has recovered from COVID-19, often without ever being diagnosed with the infection.

Yale Health has said it’s treating three children believed to have the syndrome.

Mr Cuomo announced last week that New York is developing national criteria for identifying and responding to the syndrome at the request of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

On Tuesday in testimony before a Senate committee on the administration’s coronavirus response, Dr Anthony Fauci said children in general do better than adults and the elderly, but he warned there is still much to learn about the virus.

“For example right now, children presenting with COVID-19 who actually have a very strange inflammatory syndrome very similar to Kawasaki syndrome,” Dr Fauci said.

“I think we better be very careful that we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects.”

As Bobby Dean’s boisterous energy and sardonic sense of humour returns, his mum is vigilant for signs of illness in her younger children, aged seven months and three years.

“It’s a pretty scary thing, watching your child be hooked up to all these wires and IVs and there’s nothing you can do,” Ms Dean said.

“In my opinion, right now, I would not let your child out in public.”