Thread by @DrDenaGrayson

🚨WORRISOME. Cases of #COVID19-linked Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) remain rare, but are spiking higher and are becoming more severe.

"A higher percentage of them are really critically ill."

#coronavirus #WearAMask
nytimes.com/2021/02/16/hea…

TRAGIC: 15-yo Braden Wilson wore masks and rarely left home, but got infected and developed MIS-C.

Braden was put on a ventilator & heart-lung bypass, but his organs failed. On Jan. 5, “they officially said he was brain dead. My boy was gone," recounted his mom Amanda Wilson.😰

Instead of targeting lungs, MIS-C causes inflammation throughout the body and can damage the heart. It typically appears weeks after infection in school-age children children who did NOT experience any classic #coronavirus symptoms.

More details👉🏼mdpi.com/2227-9067/7/7/…
#COVID19

Luckily, MIS-C remains rare. Thru mid-December, @CDCgov reports 2,060 cases in 48 states, Puerto Rico & DC, with 30 deaths. The median age was 9, but infants to 20-yo's have been afflicted.

But the rate of cases has been INCREASING since mid-October.🧐

cdc.gov/mis-c/cases/in…

While most kids, even those who were seriously ill, have survived and gone home relatively healthy, it's uncertain whether any will experience lingering heart issues or other problems.

“We really don’t know what will happen in the long term."

THESE ARE YOUNG KIDS.

#WearAMask

📈Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha treated ~2 cases of MIS-C/month from April-October with ~30% in ICU. That rose to 10 cases in December and 12 in January, with 60% needing ICU care—most requiring ventilators.

“Clearly, they seem to be more sick." Dr. Jean Ballweg.

Most MIS-C patients test positive for #Covid antibodies (prior infection); some patients also test positive for active #coronavirus infection. Many were previously healthy and had few/no #COVID19 symptoms, although patients with obesity and some older kids seem to fare worse.🏥

69% of MIS-C cases have affected Latino or Black kids–disproportionately exposed to the #coronavirus. But Omaha’s hospital, where early cases were largely among kids of Latinx's working in the meatpacking industry, is now “seeing a much more broad spectrum and every ethnicity."🧐

Although kids do not appear to be as severely affected by the #coronavirus as adults, ANYONE can get critically ill and die from #COVID19.

Dr. Fauci: “We’ve got to be careful that we are not cavalier and thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects.”😷

😰Poem by Braden's mom Amanda:

Now your heart no longer beats
and I can’t hold you in my arms
But I remember back to those days
When my womb protected you from harm
You lived a life of beauty
of laughter, and of grace
I hold you now inside my heart
We’ll always share that space.