Sars-cov2 even healthy children get sick
09.03.2021
A study coordinated by Prof Giovanni Di Salvo of the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health of The University of Padua, along with Elena Reffo and Valentina Stritoni, demonstrates that the Sars-Cov-2 infection can lead to serious complications even in young children without pre-existing conditions. The title of the study, Inflammatory syndrome in children associated with COVID-19 complicated by acute myocardial infarction, was recently published in the "European Heart Journal."
As one of the most prestigious journals in Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems in the world, the journal is a leader in publishing studies on pediatric cardiology including the analysis of treatments and their relative success. The study examined the medical history of a previously healthy 4-year-old child hospitalized at a local hospital for the combination of fever, conjunctivitis and a skin rash. The nasopharyngeal swab given was negative while the presence of anti-SARS-Cov-2 IgG antibodies was positive. A family member had contracted Covid-19 a month earlier and while the child was asymptomatic obviously, they contracted the Covid-19 virus without realizing it, as is often the case with children. While this explains the negativity of the tampon, once hospitalized the child’s conditions worsened and thus transferred to the Pediatric Cardiology Department of the University Hospital of Padua. Diagnosed with aneurysmal dilatation of the left coronary artery with thrombotic occlusion the results showed that the child was suffering from an acute myocardial infarction.
"The little one was successfully treated on Christmas Eve during their stay in pediatric intensive care due to level of seriousness and potentially lethal complications. Doctors were able to modify the set thrombolysis protocol used, for the first time in the world, by pediatric cardiologists for a child suffering from inflammatory syndrome secondary to Covid-19” explains Prof Di Salvo. “We used a drug that dissolves blood clots, such a protocol had never before been applied to children with Covid-19, but for which had been used in pediatric patients with Kawasaki disease, characterized by vascular complications that can affect the coronary arteries in children."
