WHO examine coronavirus link to rare disease in children as a boy died in France

The World Health Organization said that it was studying the connection between coronavirus and a rare disease that has killed children in Europe and the United States.

News has been circulating that children in several countries have been affected by a rare inflammatory disease that shows symptoms similar to Kawasaki’s disease.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed a virtual briefing. He said, “Initial reports hypothesize that this syndrome may be related to Covid-19,”

“It is critical to urgently and carefully characterize this clinical syndrome, to understand causality and to describe treatment interventions,”

He said that WHO has made a preliminary case definition for the disease as a “Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children”.

He has urged clinicians worldwide to “be on the alert and better understand this syndrome.

He addressed the briefing after a 9-year-old boy had died from the syndrome in France. He had tested positive for coronavirus. His death is the first such death in the country. In addition to this, similar cases are being investigated in New York and London.

Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York said that 3 children had died and more than 100 cases are being investigated.

On the contrary, France has reported 125 cases from March 1 to May 12. Children suffering from this disease are aged from 1 to 14.

WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove said at the Friday’s briefing that the connection to Covid-19 had to be made, as some children carrying syndrome had not tested positive for coronavirus.

“We need to understand if this syndrome is related to COVID-19 or not,” she said. “We need all countries to be on alert for this.”