Colorado Now Has 4 Potential Cases Of New Coronavirus-Related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children

DENVER (CBS4) - The number of cases for a rare syndrome effecting children with COVID-19 antibodies are just starting to be counted in Colorado. State health officials say Children's Hospital of Colorado has treated three patients over the past few weeks. Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver says it is treating one patient, bringing the states total cases to at least four.

"He's getting much better with treatment and we expect he'll have a full recovery, but he'll need to be followed for months if not years to make sure he doesn't have any of the complications that children with Kawasaki's syndrome can have," said Dr. Reginald Washington, the Chief Medical Officer at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children.

Washington says his team started seeing headlines in news articles about the syndrome in Europe a few weeks ago. They've been on the lookout for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) ever since.

"We're treating this as a separate inflammatory problem because the majority of these patients are older than those who have Kawasaki Syndrome and almost all of them are associated with COVID-19," said Washington. "Families and parents should be on the lookout for this. If your child develops any of the symptoms. Fever that doesn't seem to go away, a rash, abdominal pain, a lethargy, maybe a decreased appetite. Any of those things pay very close attention to it."

Washington says they observed a second child for similar symptoms and thought they might have MIS-C, but right now are only certain of one case. Reviews are taking place, but he believes there haven't been any missed diagnosis with the new syndrome in the past few weeks. It is still extremely rare, but as more pediatricians learn about MIS-C, it's likely cases will increase.

"We're learning as we go, meaning we report this. We read about it daily, and we're learning more and more about it," Washington said.