Alert issued as children hospitalised with severe coronavirus-related illness

Patients are suffering from cardiac inflammation and abdominal pain

Trains arrive and depart from Victoria Station near Battersea Power Station in London, England. TfL has announced that it has furloughed 7000 staff as it faces "massive financial challenges" due to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who returned to Downing Street this week after recovering from Covid-19, said the country needed to continue its lockdown measures to avoid a second spike in infections. Getty

A medical worker helps an elderly woman to get in a car as she was released from the intensive care unit of the hospital of Vinogradov City Clinical Hospital in Moscow, Russia. Reports of Russian medical workers becoming infected with the coronavirus are emerging almost daily as the country copes with a growing number of patients. AP

A man sleeps on a street outside shuttered shops in the Monastiraki district of Athens as lockdown measures continue to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. AP

A woman pushes a buggy as they walk along the Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain, as the lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus continues. Health authorities in Spain are urging parents to be responsible and abide by social distancing rules a day after some beach fronts and city promenades filled with families eager to enjoy the first stroll out in six weeks. AP

A general view of Koninklijk Paleis or The Royal Palace on King's Day which has been muted amid Coronavirus Quarantine Measures in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The country is beginning to ease lockdown measures it adopted to curb Corona Virus / Covid-19 infections, but large public gatherings are still banned, such as the King's Day (Koningsdag) celebrations that typically mark King Willem-Alexander's birthday. Getty

A cyclist rides down an empty Mulberry Street with the Empire State Building looming in the distance as storefronts in the normally bustling tourist district remain closed due to social distancing restrictions, in the Little Italy neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York. AP

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (C) speaks with the media near a shipment of 10 million protective face masks and other protective medical gear that had arrived on an Antonov 225 cargo plane from China at Leipzig/Halle Airport during the novel coronavirus crisis in Schkeuditz, Germany. The flight, coordinated by the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, is one of three that will bring 25 million masks to Germany. Germany currently has approximately 157,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection, of which approximately 103,000 have recovered and 6,0000 have died. Getty

An aerial view at the pedestrian intersection at Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave during morning rush hour in Los Angeles, California during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. AFP

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte meets reporters in Milan, Italy. Italian factories, construction sites and wholesale supply businesses can resume activity as soon as they put safety measures into place aimed at containing contagion with COVID-19. This concession comes with partial easing of national lockdown restrictions announced Sunday night by Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte. AP

An employee wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) directs a customer at a Hindustan Petroleum Corp. gas station during a lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus in New Delhi, India. Oil has lost almost 80% this year as global efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus vaporized demand for everything from gasoline to crude. The world's biggest producers have pledged to slash daily output from the start of next month to try and balance the market, but the collapse in consumption has led to a swelling glut that's testing the limits of storage worldwide. Bloomberg

Nurses wearing face masks monitor COVID-19 patients in the ICU at the Emerging Infectious Disease Clinic in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. Athit Perawongmetha

Medical personnel walk past migrant workers at a dormitory during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Singapore. REUTERS

Malaysian health workers register traders before carrying out COVID-19 screenings at a wet market in Petaling Jaya near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. About 60 traders of Taman Megah morning wet market were undergoing COVID-19 screenings after one of them had tested positive for the coronavirus disease. The market was shut down for sanitisation work. EPA

Commuters wearing face masks travel on a tram past HSBC signage displayed outside the bank’s local headquarters in Hong Kong. The London-based, Asia-focused banking giant HSBC is expected to release its first-quarter results on April 28 amid affects of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. AFP

UK health officials have issued an urgent alert to family doctors after an unspecified number of children were admitted to intensive care units with serious coronavirus-related symptoms.

The children were suffering from abdominal pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, cardiac inflammation and blood test results consistent with severe Covid-19 infections.

The patients also showed overlapping signs of toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki Disease, which causes blood vessels to become swollen and inflamed and can lead to cardiac issues.

Not all of the children have tested positive for Covid-19 although many have.

The alert was issued by a clinical commissioning group in London and shared online by the Paediatric Intensive Care Society. Family doctors have been urged to be vigilant and refer children to emergency care and specialists.

“Over the last 3 weeks there has been [an] apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care across London and also in other regions of the UK.” the alert says.

“There is a growing concern that a SARS-CoV-2 related inflammatory syndrome [is] emerging in children in the UK or that there may be another as yet unidentified infectious pathogen associated with these cases,” it adds.

SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus strain that caused the Covid-19 outbreak.

The news has caused alarm online with Dr Elizabeth Whittaker, a paediatrician in infectious diseases and immunology at St Mary’s Hospital in London, saying that Italian and Spanish colleagues are reporting similar cases.

“Numbers are small but significant,” Dr Whittaker wrote on Twitter. “We want primary care (and) A&E to be vigilant so those affected are in the right place to get appropriate supportive care if needed.”

But confusion remains as to why the NHS has not made their concerns public with some in the medical community criticising the lack of communication.

NHS England said there is no evidence so far of a confirmed link between Kawasaki-related diseases and Covid-19 complications in children.

“Thankfully Kawasaki-like diseases are very rare, as currently are serious complications in children related to Covid-19, but it is important that clinicians are made aware of any potential emerging links so that they are able to give children and young people the right care fast,” said professor Simon Kenny, NHS national clinical director for children and young people.