243 children detected with post-Covid MIS-C last year, 11 die

A child from Gazipur was admitted to Shishu Hospital in the capital in June last year, suffering from high fever for quite a long time. Two days after returning home, the child felt feverish and was taken to hospital again. Tests revealed that the child had coronavirus.

The child was suffering from a post-Covid physical complication called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). The child returned home one and a half months later without being fully cured.

Last December the child fell sick yet again with high fever, cough and shortness of breath. Blood vessels around the heart were swollen and the child was admitted to a private hospital in the capital. MIS-C was diagnosed once more. The child is well now but under supervision of physicians.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States, people under 21 years suffer from MIS-C. This complication is caused when someone is infected with coronavirus or comes in contact with an infected person.

Fahmida Zabeen, senior consultant at neonatology and pediatrics department, Evercare Hospital, Dhaka says a child with this syndrome suffers from severe fever. Other symptoms include weakness and exhaustion, red rashes on the body, stomach ache, nausea, diarrhoea, red lips, bloodshot eyes and swelling of the hands and feet. The child’s blood vessels also become inflamed. This inflammation can restrict blood circulation which causes harm to heart, kidney, liver and other organs.

The rate of infection and death caused by post-Covid complication MIS-C is on the rise. Data of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) in the year 2021, indicates 243 children were diagnosed with MIS-C in nine government and private hospitals. Of them 11 children died.

The list of those nine hospitals include Bangladesh Shishu Hospital, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical Hospital, Evercare Hospital, United Hospital, Bangladesh Specialised Hospital, Universal Medical College and Hospital, Dr MR Khan Shishu Hospital and Chattogram Maa-O-Shishu Hospital.

Earlier in 2020, Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Dr MR Khan Shishu Hospital gave information of the children infected with MIS-C. In that year the number of infected children was only 15 while only one child died. However, the number will increase even more if data of all hospitals are analysed, believe concerned people.

ASM Alamgir, principal scientific officer, IEDCR taking to Prothom Alo said, “The issue of children contracting MIS-C is being monitored separately even during the corona situation. But, IEDCR doesn’t get information from all hospitals. However, the fear centering MIS-C has decreased. Children are recovering well for quick diagnosis.”

MIS-C was first found in the United Kingdom in April of 2020. And Bangladesh’s first MIS-C patient was identified in Evercare Hospital, Dhaka on 15 May last year. A college student died of it in Square Hospital on 1 October. Presumably, this was country’s first ever death in MIS-C.

Evercare Hospital sources say 40 children suffering from MIS-C were admitted in the hospital in 2020. Last year that number dropped to 20 while, in January of the current year only one MIS-C patient was admitted. No one died of it at the time.

Meanwhile, 12 children infected with MIS-C received treatment at the pediatric nephrology department of Bangladesh Shishu Hospital from August to October in 2020. Two of them died. Two of the children aged between 17 months to 13 years were corona positive.

In between November, 2020 to October, 2021 a total of 22 children with MIS-C infection were treated in this hospital. Only one child who had dengue as well as kidney and heart complication along with MIS-C, died. From last November till this February four kids were diagnosed with MIS-C in this hospital. All four of them had corona and have returned home after recovery.

Shireen Afroz, professor of pediatric nephrology department, Shishu Hospital, told Prothom Alo children get MIS-C usually within eight weeks of being infected with coronavirus or coming in contact with a corona patient. Apart from antibody test, MIS-C can be diagnosed through various tests including high CRP level in blood.

If infected, sudden kidney failure can increase fatality risk. On the other hand, patients have to go through treatment for a long time even after recovering, she added.

* This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Nourin Ahmed Monisha