Here’s the latest news from the global pandemic.
Tracking a stealthy Covid-linked condition
MIS-C is a rare but terrible condition that lands a large number of kids who get it in the intensive care unit. It’s thought to stem from a previous Covid-19 infection, usually one in healthy kids who didn’t show any symptoms of the virus.
Yet just as younger Americans bear a larger burden when it comes to Covid-19 than before, thanks to several months of vaccine availability for older adults, it’s become clear the full extent of MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, in the U.S. is unknown.
Texas Children’s Hospital, one of more than a dozen such pediatric centers in the state, has cared for more than 150 young patients with MIS-C in the last year, said Lara Shekerdemian, chief of critical care at Texas Children’s. Yet the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tallied fewer than 100 cases in all of Texas.
The CDC posts a count of MIS-C cases reported by state health departments that it updates monthly. Its most recent tally shows 3,742 MIS-C cases in the U.S. That number is likely low.
The condition was just discovered a couple months into the pandemic and state reporting is voluntary, meaning it can be slow or sometimes not happen at all. That’s much different from the CDC’s close, daily tracking of Covid-19 cases, which have been falling in recent weeks.
The lack of data could prove disquieting for parents, particularly those whose children are under 12 and aren’t yet eligible for shots. Most MIS-C cases have shown up in children from 5 to 14, with a median age of 9, according to the CDC.
While some health departments have reported totals that appear in line with the CDC’s data, large states such as New York, California and Texas show discrepancies.
The CDC doesn’t view the data on its website as a complete tally, said spokeswoman Jade Fulce. Instead, the agency uses it to understand trends.
The CDC has linked 35 deaths to the condition but, even though most kids recover, it can affect many parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, brain and gastrointestinal system. And the long-term impact is still unknown.
“It’s like a bomb is inside them, breaking every part of their immune system up,” said Guliz Erdem, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio. “This is new territory for everyone involved, and it’s probably the tip of the iceberg.”—Anna Edney
Track the vaccines
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a devastating public-health catastrophe the world over. For China, it’s also provided an unprecedented geopolitical opportunity. Beijing’s Covid-19 shots are a new soft-power lever in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Read the full story here.
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