US doctors nationwide have been seeing a sharp increase in the number of patients with pediatric post-COVID syndrome, called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children or MIS-C, The New York Times reported this week.

There are not only more cases overall but more children are becoming seriously ill, doctors say.

“We’re now getting more of these MIS-C kids, but this time, it just seems that a higher percentage of them are really critically ill,” said Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Dr. DeBiasi said that 80-90% of the children require treatment in the ICU versus only about 50% during the hospital’s first wave.

According to the report, the reasons for the increase are not clear. While in Israel, it’s known that the British variant – now responsible for as much as 90% of cases in the country – is more contagious for children, it’s too early in the US to estimate the impact of variants on post-COVID syndrome, the NYT report stated.

Israel is also experiencing an increase of pediatric patients with post-COVID syndrome.

US doctors say that most children survive the ordeal and recover but they are concerned about long-term damage to organs, especially the heart.

“We really don’t know what will happen in the long term,” said Dr. Jean Ballweg, medical director of pediatric heart transplant and advanced heart failure at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Ballweg said the hospital treated only two cases of post-COVID syndrome a month during the first coronavirus wave. Cases rose to 10 in December, and 12 in January, with 60% of patients requiring ICU care.

Symptoms of the syndrome include fever, a rash, red eyes, or gastrointestinal problems.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)