New COVID-related inflammatory illness affects at least 3 children in Yuma

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY)- More cases are surfacing of a new inflammatory syndrome affecting children, known to be linked with the Coronavirus.

According to Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC), at least three children in Yuma were diagnosed with the multi-system inflammatory syndrome, better known as Mis-C. All three of the patients were flown to Phoenix Children's Hospital for further care.

Children and adults who are diagnosed with MIS-C may test negative in Coronavirus tests.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), research about this disease is limited because it is a rather new illness. However, doctors say patients with MIS-C can have different body parts inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs.

Researchers with the CDC says many children with MIS-C had also had the virus that causes COVID-19 or had been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

The new disease seems more virulent than Kawasaki disease. The CDC named the disease on May 14, 2020. The following is the case definition for MIS-C provided by the CDC:

• An individual under 21 years of age with fever, laboratory evidence of inflammation, and evidence of clinically severe illness requiring hospitalization with multisystem (>2) organ involvement (cardiac, renal, respiratory, hematologic, gastrointestinal, dermatologic or neurological); and
• no alternative plausible diagnoses; and
• positive for current or recent SARS-CoV-2 infection by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, serology, or antigen test; or COVID-19 exposure within the 4 weeks prior to the onset of symptoms.

MIS-C can be severe, even deadly, but most children who were diagnosed with this condition have gotten better with medical care.

The first cases of this disease were reported in Arizona only a few weeks ago.

Tune in to Sunrise on Monday at 6 and 7 a.m., as Gabriel Salazar speaks to a local mother whose child was diagnosed with MIS-C after she was tested positive for coronavirus.