Doctors in Britain, Italy and Spain had been asked to stay cautious of a rare inflammatory condition in children that has been observed and somewhere has its roots in Covid-19. 

Many children have fallen ill with a new and potentially fatal combination of symptoms apparently linked to Covid-19, including a sore stomach and heart problems. 

Britain’s Paediatric Intensive Care Society issued an alert to doctors noting that in the past three weeks, there has been an increase in the number of children with “a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care” across the country. Only some of the children tested positive for COVID-19, so scientists are unsure if these rare symptoms are caused by the new coronavirus or by something else.  

As more is being unearthed about the disease, what has come out is that it’s a severe immune response that can affect the body in multiple ways, most importantly by making the blood vessels leaky, a condition called Kawasaki disease. 

This leads to low blood pressure and a build-up of fluid in the lungs and organs. Patients need urgent intensive care to support the heart, lungs and sometimes other organs such as the kidneys.  

Other symptoms have also been observed in children, including abdominal pain, gastrointestinal problems and heart inflammation. There is no evidence that the condition is caused by any change in the virus, but it may be a post-infection inflammatory response triggered by the coronavirus.

Scientists and doctors continue to get a clearer understanding of what is causing this disease and why it is more prevalent in children.