Coronavirus: Critically ill asymptomatic kids alarm doctors in Britain

A cluster of children who had coronavirus but were asymptomatic has alarmed doctors after they became critically ill with symptoms similar to toxic shock syndrome or Kawasaki disease.

Children respect social distancing as they line up to enter the Petri primary school in Dortmund, Germany. Picture: AFP

A cluster of children who had coronavirus but were asymptomatic has alarmed doctors after they became critically ill with symptoms similar to toxic shock syndrome or Kawasaki disease.

A study from Evelina London Children’s Hospital and reported in the Lancet has raised concerns that children may not escape the impact of coronavirus as easily as initially believed.

The alarm was raised last month when a cluster of eight critically ill children, aged four to 14, suddenly presented at the hospital. Since then more than 20 children have been seen at the hospital with similar symptoms. The hospital normally sees about two a week.

Doctors say most of the children had not tested positive to coronavirus but many of them had coronavirus antibodies, indicating they were asymptomatic.

It is unclear whether the coronavirus directly causes the phenomenon, or whether the inflammatory response is caused by another infection.

Of the initial eight cases in Britain, seven were clinically obese and six were Afro-Caribbean descent — both are seen as risk factors for coronavirus.

While seven children were discharged from intensive care at Evelina after five days, one boy, 14, who weighed 95kg, died of a stroke.

The study authors said of the eight cases: “Clinical presentations were similar, with unrelenting fever (38–40°C), variable rash, conjunctivitis, peripheral oedema, and generalised extremity pain with significant gastrointestinal symptoms.”

The children required mechanical ventilation.

Last week British Health Secretary Matt Hancock told London radio he was “very worried’’.

“It’s a new disease that we think may be caused by coronavirus and the COVID-19 virus,” Mr Hancock said. “We’re not 100 per cent sure because some of the people who got it hadn’t tested positive, so we’re doing a lot of research now, but it is something that we’re worried about.

“It is rare, although it is very significant for those children who do get it. The number of cases is small.”

Following the British alert at the end of last month the New York City Health department notified 15 children in hospital with an inflammatory syndrome possibly linked to the coronavirus. New York State raised the alert this week because of 64 suspected cases.