Coronavirus: Nine-year-old boy in France dies of mystery illness linked to Covid-19

WHO tells clinicians to ‘be alert’ for ‘very rare’ Kawasaki disease-like condition affecting up to 100 UK children

A nine-year-old boy in France has died of a puzzling inflammatory condition seemingly linked to coronavirus, which has affected at least 230 children in Europe and claimed the life of one child in the UK.

The experienced paediatrician in Marseilles who initially treated the boy believed he had scarlet fever and, as he displayed "no signs of being seriously ill”, sent him home.

The boy then suffered a heart attack at home that night, resulting in brain damage that later led to his death.

After his heart attack on 2 May, he was rushed to intensive care at a different hospital, La Timone, where he spent six days.

Blood tests indicated he had been infected with Covid-19 in previous weeks, but he had no symptoms and was no longer testing positive for the virus when admitted to hospital.

Instead, some of the boy’s symptoms resembled those of Kawasaki disease, a rare blood vessel disorder, said Dr Fabrice Michel, head of La Timone’s paediatric unit.

The existing Kawasaki disease leads to an inflammatory response in the body’s immune system causing blood vessels to swell. Symptoms include a fever, rash, red eyes and lips and redness on the palms and soles of the feet.

About 125 children in France, up to 100 in the UK and at least 100 in New York have developed Kawasaki-like symptoms during the coronavirus outbreak, arousing suspicions of a link.

Only some of the affected children in France have tested positive for Covid-19, so scientists are unsure whether the symptoms are caused by the new coronavirus or by something else.

“What is certain is that this illness is thankfully very rare,” Dr Michel said on Friday, after the hospital released details of the young boy’s case – the first fatality in France linked to the syndrome.

The World Health Organisation announced on Friday that it is studying the condition, which it described as having “some features similar to Kawasaki’s disease and toxic shock syndrome”, and called on all clinicians worldwide to "be alert and better understand this syndrome".

The European Union health body, ECDC, has agreed to include the syndrome as a possible complication of Covid-19 to be reported for Europe-wide surveillance.

The children affected have shown at least two of the following symptoms: rash or signs of inflammation around the mouth, hands or feet; shock or low blood pressure; heart problems; evidence of bleeding disorder; and acute gastrointestinal problems.

A study published in The Lancet on Wednesday studying the syndrome in Italy found a 30-fold increase over the past month of a "Kawasaki-like" disease.

While it typically affects children younger than five-years-old, those found to have developed antibodies to Covid-19 and also developed the Kawasaki-like disease have been as old as 14 and, the researchers found, appear to have a higher rate of cardiac issues than those with Kawasaki.

"A similar outbreak of Kawasaki-like disease is expected in countries involved in the Sars-CoV-2 epidemic," they concluded.

Experts say the condition is still extremely rare and not a cause for general alarm among parents.

Additional reporting by agencies