Nearly 150 children in New York City have contracted a rare inflammatory illness linked to the novel coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.
“The CDC has confirmed a link to COVID-19, so this is important,” the mayor said about the rare illness known as Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). “We’ve assumed it, but they have done additional research to 100% confirm it.”
Out of the 145 children diagnosed with the illness, 67 tested positive for the virus or its antibodies — suggesting that they at one point contracted the disease and then recovered.
The CDC released a standard definition and a list of symptoms for the illness, which health officials previously referred to as Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS).
Parents should contact their health care provider immediately if a child 21-years-old or younger starts to show symptoms like fever, sluggishness, irritability, sharp abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, rash, conjunctivitis, enlarged lymph nodes, red cracked lips, red tongue, swollen hands and feet.
If parents do not have access to a health care provider, the mayor encouraged them to call 311 to be connected to the clinician at one of the city’s public hospitals.
The city’s Health Department adopted that definition, the mayor said, and is now applying it “back over the last few weeks” to learn more about the cases of MIS-C city health officials have seen so far.
“We’ll have updated numbers with this new definition, the MIS-C definition, shortly,” the mayor said. “But it’s the same bottom line, look for these symptoms in your children, act quickly to see them, get to health care quickly.”
This story first appeared on AMNY.com.
