11 Washington state kids sickened by serious inflammatory illness linked to COVID

Eleven children in Washington state have been diagnosed with a rare condition linked to the coronavirus, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

That’s two more children diagnosed with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C, since mid May.

The syndrome has hit the Hispanic community particularly hard. While 13% of the state’s population is Hispanic, 55% of the children diagnosed with the syndrome are Hispanic.

The cases include six in Western Washington and five in less populous Eastern Washington.

They include three cases in Yakima County and two in Franklin County, both counties that have had the most cases per population in the state at times this summer.

King County has had three cases, Snohomish had two and Skagit had one.

Six of the cases in Washington state have been in children younger than 10 and five have been in older children or teens.

Inflammatory syndrome

MIS-C is a rare, but serious, condition first identified in the United Kingdom in late April.

Patients are younger than 21 and have a fever and laboratory evidence of severe illness involving more than two organs that require hospitalization.

Affected organs can include the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

To be diagnosed with the illness they must have tested positive for COVID-19 or been exposed to a confirmed case in the four weeks before the symptoms began and also have no other plausible diagnosis for symptoms.

“While MIS-C is very rare, parents should be aware it can happen and contact their health care provider if their children develop new or unusual symptoms,” said Dr. Kathy Lofy, health officer for the state Department of Health.

Parents are advised to watch for fever or headache, abdominal pain with or without diarrhea, fatigue and respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, said Dr. John McGuire, chief of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital, when the initial cases in the state were reported.

The 11 cases in Washington state are among 570 cases reported nationwide in 40 states, according to the CDC.

The Hispanic population is not the only minority population with a disproportionate number of cases.

The state Department of Health reports 9% of cases in the American Indians or Alaska Natives which make up 1% of the state’s population. Another 9% of cases are in Blacks, which make up 4% of the state’s population.

Non-Hispanic whites account for 68% of the state’s population and 18% of the MIS-C cases. The remaining 9% of cases are in the Asian population, which makes up 9% of the state’s total population.

This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 12:40 PM.