<p>In this episode of The Lead from DH Radio, find out about the mysterious cases in children post Covid-19 recovery. With Schools soon opening, this discovery has further fuelled the debate of starting schools. </p>.<p><strong>Excerpts:</strong></p>.<p>Varsha Gowda: Hi, this is Varsha Gowda, and welcome to the Lead by DH radio. In a few days, schools will confront the new normal; children will be back in their uniform to learn with their friends. As the debate to open schools continues, DH correspondent Akhil Kadidal explains how the discovery of a rare dysfunction in COVID recovered children could make this difficult. To start us off, could you tell us a little bit about this dysfunction?</p>.<p>Akhil Kadidal: Yeah, it's called a multisystem inflammatory syndrome. It's MIS is in short, it primarily occurs in children and it's associated in part with Kawasaki disease, but it's more dangerous and Kawasaki disease. So what happens is this is a dysfunction. It affects kids who recover from COVID-19 across a broad range of ages. The kids primarily get symptoms such as a rash. fever, but the internal problems are a lot more severe, such as neurological symptoms, shock can ensue. And more, More importantly, cardiac dysfunction can happen such as arrhythmia and ventricular dysfunction.</p>.<p>Varsha: So, what is the frequency or the extent of this syndrome? How many recover children have it?</p>.<p>Akhil: Well, you know, internationally there have been studies on this but in India, in the first few cases, Emily been reported in Mumbai and Chennai before three were reported in Bangalore, but what we do know, based on the international evidence is about eight to 15% of cold recovered children get this.</p>.<p>Varsha: You mentioned that this has been observed in other countries as well. Could you give us a few instances and what happened in those countries?</p>.<p>Akhil: Yeah, you know, this is actually pretty interesting, though, it seems like this MIS has been primarily found in kids in the worst affected countries and I'm talking about the United States and Spain, but Israel is also one of these countries because what happened in Israel was something very interesting now Israel that actually opened their schools prematurely before they had finished their first wave of infections. Okay. So a bunch of kids ended up going back to school where they got infected. And the Israeli medical community is starting to see a lot of these MIS cases ensuing as a result. So, this is primarily, you know, the doctors also did something very interesting. They say the medical research says that MIS primarily manifests itself and kids once a peak once the COVID-19 cases start to peak in a place, right that that is a key point here. But in Bangalore, it's interesting because we have not yet reached the peak. So I don't know what is happening and even the experts don't know what is exactly is happening as far as cases in Bangalore. But this is the international evidence.</p>.<p>Varsha: Why is this worrying? And what are the complications that we might face if this goes unaddressed?</p>.<p>Akhil: But you know, with cardiac dysfunction it is it can be pretty serious right there. According to one expert that I spoke to said that this is a very serious condition, especially in children. For example, cardiac dysfunction can actually cause a blood vessel to become inflamed or swollen. blood clots can result which means that the blood clot may eventually travel up to the heart at some point in the child's life, resulting in a fatality. And this is serious. But so far in the three banner cases that we know all the kids have the conditional children has not been as serious as a worst-case scenario that I just laid out.</p>.<p>Varsha: Also. are doctors testing for this particular syndrome, or do they discover the cases after they see are the symptoms?</p>.<p>Akhil: Yeah, he knows a Very interesting question for sure. Because, you know, obviously, doctors are not tracking this again, the only reason. The cases that have been found so far is because the kids happen to go back for a follow-up. This is the key point here. Okay, children, who go back for a fall I mean covered recovered children who go back for a follow-up need to be monitored. Now, we don't know how many kids are going back for a follow up after recovering and certainly in government hospitals, we're not too sure if private hospitals maybe you know, the kids come back from a middle-class background, they're the parents can probably afford to go back for regular checkups. But in other, you know, segments society, I'm not too sure that parents are taking our kids back for a checkup. And this is where the real danger is...</p>.<p>To know more about the conversation, listen to the podcast.<br /> </p>
<p>In this episode of The Lead from DH Radio, find out about the mysterious cases in children post Covid-19 recovery. With Schools soon opening, this discovery has further fuelled the debate of starting schools. </p>.<p><strong>Excerpts:</strong></p>.<p>Varsha Gowda: Hi, this is Varsha Gowda, and welcome to the Lead by DH radio. In a few days, schools will confront the new normal; children will be back in their uniform to learn with their friends. As the debate to open schools continues, DH correspondent Akhil Kadidal explains how the discovery of a rare dysfunction in COVID recovered children could make this difficult. To start us off, could you tell us a little bit about this dysfunction?</p>.<p>Akhil Kadidal: Yeah, it's called a multisystem inflammatory syndrome. It's MIS is in short, it primarily occurs in children and it's associated in part with Kawasaki disease, but it's more dangerous and Kawasaki disease. So what happens is this is a dysfunction. It affects kids who recover from COVID-19 across a broad range of ages. The kids primarily get symptoms such as a rash. fever, but the internal problems are a lot more severe, such as neurological symptoms, shock can ensue. And more, More importantly, cardiac dysfunction can happen such as arrhythmia and ventricular dysfunction.</p>.<p>Varsha: So, what is the frequency or the extent of this syndrome? How many recover children have it?</p>.<p>Akhil: Well, you know, internationally there have been studies on this but in India, in the first few cases, Emily been reported in Mumbai and Chennai before three were reported in Bangalore, but what we do know, based on the international evidence is about eight to 15% of cold recovered children get this.</p>.<p>Varsha: You mentioned that this has been observed in other countries as well. Could you give us a few instances and what happened in those countries?</p>.<p>Akhil: Yeah, you know, this is actually pretty interesting, though, it seems like this MIS has been primarily found in kids in the worst affected countries and I'm talking about the United States and Spain, but Israel is also one of these countries because what happened in Israel was something very interesting now Israel that actually opened their schools prematurely before they had finished their first wave of infections. Okay. So a bunch of kids ended up going back to school where they got infected. And the Israeli medical community is starting to see a lot of these MIS cases ensuing as a result. So, this is primarily, you know, the doctors also did something very interesting. They say the medical research says that MIS primarily manifests itself and kids once a peak once the COVID-19 cases start to peak in a place, right that that is a key point here. But in Bangalore, it's interesting because we have not yet reached the peak. So I don't know what is happening and even the experts don't know what is exactly is happening as far as cases in Bangalore. But this is the international evidence.</p>.<p>Varsha: Why is this worrying? And what are the complications that we might face if this goes unaddressed?</p>.<p>Akhil: But you know, with cardiac dysfunction it is it can be pretty serious right there. According to one expert that I spoke to said that this is a very serious condition, especially in children. For example, cardiac dysfunction can actually cause a blood vessel to become inflamed or swollen. blood clots can result which means that the blood clot may eventually travel up to the heart at some point in the child's life, resulting in a fatality. And this is serious. But so far in the three banner cases that we know all the kids have the conditional children has not been as serious as a worst-case scenario that I just laid out.</p>.<p>Varsha: Also. are doctors testing for this particular syndrome, or do they discover the cases after they see are the symptoms?</p>.<p>Akhil: Yeah, he knows a Very interesting question for sure. Because, you know, obviously, doctors are not tracking this again, the only reason. The cases that have been found so far is because the kids happen to go back for a follow-up. This is the key point here. Okay, children, who go back for a fall I mean covered recovered children who go back for a follow-up need to be monitored. Now, we don't know how many kids are going back for a follow up after recovering and certainly in government hospitals, we're not too sure if private hospitals maybe you know, the kids come back from a middle-class background, they're the parents can probably afford to go back for regular checkups. But in other, you know, segments society, I'm not too sure that parents are taking our kids back for a checkup. And this is where the real danger is...</p>.<p>To know more about the conversation, listen to the podcast.<br /> </p>
