Coronavirus: 6-month-old girl from Bay Area believed to be 1st to contract both COVID-19 and Kawasaki disease
This news comes as multiple cases of Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome have begun to emerge with links to COVID-19.
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A Bay Area baby is believed to be the first recorded diagnosis of a child having both the novel coronavirus and Kawasaki disease, a case study reveals.
Zara, who is six months old, was about to be released from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto for a rare condition called Kawasaki disease before she tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
She tested positive March 16, just before the Bay Area's COVID-19 related shelter-in-place order.
In Los Angeles, doctors at Children's Hospital reported instances of a mysterious inflammatory condition in children linked to the coronavirus. In the medical community, the condition is being referred to as Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome.
The condition reported in L.A. is similar to Kawasaki Disease, a rare, complex syndrome that turns a child's immune system against its blood vessels.
In a case study on set to publish in June, "COVID-19 and Kawasaki Disease: Novel Virus and Novel Case," the medical journal was pre-published online, gaining urgency in the past few weeks when children in New York had been hospitalized for a mysterious disease being described as "pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome."
It's unclear just yet if Zara's condition is the same as a mysterious illness that's affecting children in several states, including New York. Two young children and a teenager there died from a possible complication from the coronavirus involving swollen blood vessels and heart problems.
What parents should know about rare condition that affects some kids with COVID-19
