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Children, COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome

a sad looking, sick little boy in a hospital bed

Children, COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome
September 4, 2020

Children can become ill with COVID-19, and sometimes they develop a rare but serious reaction called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). When this reaction happens, different body parts become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, intestinal tract and brain. More than 600 cases of MIS-C have been reported in the U.S. as of Aug. 20, most in minority populations.

On the Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Emily Levy, a pediatric critical care and infectious diseases expert, gives an overview of MIS-C, including its similarities with Kawasaki disease.