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Kochi: An 11-year-old boy suffering from severe heart failure and shock due to Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) was successfully treated at Amrita Hospital in Kochi with ECMO, which is akin to heart-lung bypass machine used in open-heart surgery, saving his life from the dreaded disease that appears to be linked to Covid-19. Amrita Hospital doctors are warning of a wave of MIS-C across South India which may hit children in a big way. Adhik’s case is an early warning of this, they say.

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Medical specialists warned that a new disease called “Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children” was spreading throughout the country and requested parents to take extra care of their young children.

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Over the last month, several hospitals across Delhi have reported cases of multi inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) as a post-Covid complication, though city pediatricians emphasise that affected children have responded well to treatment.

According to the Lancet, the factors that trigger the condition are not yet known but it is thought to be a rare immune overreaction that occurs approximately four to six weeks after a mild or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. The symptoms include fever for three days, rash, eye infection and gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea, stomach-ache and nausea. In very rare cases, the condition can lead to multi-organ failure.

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A post-COVID complication affecting children and adolescents, Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), also called Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS), was first identified in April last year by doctors at children’s hospitals in the US and the UK.

Since then it has been reported in several parts of the world. Several children here are presently being treated for the disease at the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital for Children (LRH).

A post-COVID complication affecting children and adolescents, largely those between two to 15 years, MIS-C causes inflammation of the blood vessels affecting multiple organs including the liver, kidneys, heart and eyes.

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KYIV. June 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Post-COVID rehabilitation is necessary for patients even at the time of stay in a medical facility, and 20-40% of patients who have recovered will suffer from post-COVID syndrome, a number of experts voiced this opinion during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

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Millions of people who have gotten COVID-19 and survived are finding that a full recovery can be frustratingly elusive. Weeks and months after seemingly recovering from even a mild case, many patients still confront a wide range of health problems.
As researchers try to measure the duration and depth of what's being called "long COVID," a burgeoning number of specialized post-acute COVID clinics are opening to handle the patients. The scale of the pandemic means that COVID's disable effect-as well as the economic pain and drain on health resources- could persist well after the contagion ends.

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Dr Nanditha CN Gowda, Consultant- General Medicine, Apollo TeleHealth, informs that studies indicate PCS lasts for more than a year in some patients.

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Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show there has been a marked increase in the number of people with self-reported long Covid that has lasted for at least a year.

Here, the PA news agency answers the key questions about the condition.

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– What is long Covid?

Long Covid, also known as post-Covid syndrome, is used to describe the effects of the virus that continue for weeks or months beyond the initial illness.

– What are the symptoms?

The most recent study from Imperial College London suggests the most common symptoms were tiredness and muscle aches.

While in a second group they were shortness of breath affecting normal activities, tightness in the chest and chest pain, with more people reporting that they had severe symptoms.

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Many coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) recovering patients who have been affected by the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can experience persistent symptoms which can last beyond 4 weeks. This can be known as ‘long COVID’ and can include a broad range of symptoms, such as breathlessness and fatigue and this can overlap with post-intensive care syndrome (PICS).

PICS can include a wide variety of physical, psychological, and cognitive symptoms which can affect 25% of critically ill survivors, who experience fatigue, post-traumatic stress, and muscle weakness. This syndrome can last up to 5 years and can affect the readmission rates of patients who are struggling to recover from fatigue-related illnesses such as COVID-19.

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We tend to make sense of sickness by ascribing levels to it, like medals in Olympic boxing: There’s featherweight “I’m under the weather,” a welterweight “ghastly ill.” And then there’s the super heavyweight, an opponent that actually scares you. Few people have to face off with this kind of illness. I have. Which may be why, as I scan through the daily news about the coronavirus, I tend to skip the stats on how many have died, the ventilators we don’t have, the politics, the quarantines, the jobs lost, even the bread-baking. Instead, I find myself drifting into the minds of those souls strapped to gurneys in the hallway, encased in a macramé of tubes and wires, fighting for each breath. These are the ones facing the super heavyweight. Some of them will die. But the ones I think about are the ones who will survive. Because I’ve been there. I know that getting off the ventilator won’t be the end of the story. And I know that not being sick doesn’t mean you’re well.

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There is a common misconception that people who come down with COVID-19 experience one of two disease courses: They have minimal or no symptoms that clear up in a week, or they get extremely ill and either die or recover after receiving intensive care treatment.
But now that the coronavirus has been under sharp focus for more than six months, physicians are noting that this binary belief is inaccurate. Some patients in both categories experience lingering symptoms and are at risk for long-term damage to organ systems weeks and months later.