United States: The spike in children who are not inoculated or those whose immunity is waning from previous vaccinations further fueled the MIS-C cases to remain light from the years before.
And having this report in front of us, which was published on Thursday, recommends that these children fall under the umbrella of the ones at greater risk of autism spectrum disorder.
Know more about MIS-C
A multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), which is rare in children, is a severe condition involving inflammation of different body parts, such as the lungs, heart, brain, and kidneys.
According to CDC reports, in a general case scenario, its symptoms become visible after two to six weeks of contact with the infection. The disease has the potential to lead infected children to deteriorate their condition, leading to their hospitalization, as ABC News reported.
An investigation by officials to understand the rising trend
CDC investigators and partners from several health departments formed a consortium to understand MIS-C cases in 2023. They further compared them with cases that occurred earlier in the pandemic, from 2020 to 2022.
It was observed that the period’s peak from late 2020 to early 2021 was followed by a sudden drop in MIS-C cases. However, with the beginning of the fall of 2023, news cases started to show up. This also coincided with the time when COVID-19 activity was at its peak in the US.
About total cases reported in 2023
According to officials’ records, 117 cases were reported in 2023, with about one-fourth of cases occurring between August and October 2023.
Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, stated, “While numbers have gone down, it’s still a persistent risk in our pediatric population, and it’s especially true following surges of COVID. We will see increases in this condition among our kids,” ABC News reported.
The mean age of MIS-C patients in 2023 was 7. However, this is still younger than the median age of 5, which older adults usually enjoy, from February 2020 to January 2022.
The majority of cases had no underlying illnesses before
Of the 117 patients, 58 percent did not have any underlying conditions prior to the onset of the disease. This is in line with previous evidence from the CDC on the issue, which has revealed that the majority of these children do not have preexisting conditions.
Of the kids who already had preexisting medical conditions, obesity was the highest percentage at 27.4 percent. Other preexisting conditions include chronic lung disease, neurological conditions, and cardiac conditions.
Many of the young ones were critically ill, needed extended hospitalization, or had to be treated medically.
The analysis revealed that more than half (50 percent) had intensive care units, 34 percent developed shock, which referred to the organs not receiving enough blood or oxygen, and 27 percent of them experienced cardiac dysfunction.
The team also noted that the percentage numbers aligned with previously reported data during the pandemic.
Most patients (112 out of the 117) were eligible to get COVID-19 vaccines during their illness phase.
Vaccination status of the disease
However, the majority that is 82.1 percent of children with the condition were not vaccinated. Besides, among the 20 people who were vaccinated, 60 percent of them had not had their vaccination shots for 12 months or more.
Among only five patients with MIS-C, only three or more doses were administered when the clinical trial began.
This means that unvaccinated children and those with waning immunity were more likely to progress to MIS-C than those who had been vaccinated or whose immunity did not fall.
Brownstein added, “It highlights the fact that vaccination still represents our critical tool to reducing any significant risk of complications from COVID in our pediatric population,” as ABC News reported.
“The issue, of course, is that as we get further out from the height of the pandemic, vaccination becomes less of a priority for families,” he said.
Adding further, “Likely because those kids have become vaccine-eligible, but parents are electing not to vaccinate their kids, because of the sort of overall perception that COVID risk is low,” and, “But MIS-C is one of those critical features of COVID that should represent an important reason why parents should get their kids vaccinated.”