A mother in Montreal is keen to warn parents of a serious inflammatory disease her 7-year-old son developed last month after contracting COVID-19.
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“You have to be attentive to the symptoms, because you have to go to the hospital as soon as possible. We were lucky that he was treated on day four, because otherwise he could have had sequelae, ”insists Andrea Abramovich-Gates, who has gone through his share of hardships in recent months.
In November, her youngest son was infected with COVID-19 at school. Like the vast majority of young people his age, Jacob fortunately did not develop any symptoms and did not even infect the rest of the family.
However, eight weeks later, he suddenly fell very ill. To the extreme fatigue that kept him in bed, he quickly added powerful stomach aches and rashes.
“When I called the doctor, he had a fever of 39 and the next day at the hospital, he was at 40.5,” says his mother.
At the Montreal Children’s Hospital, doctors quickly established a diagnosis: multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (EMIS).
More and more frequent
EMIS is the result of an over-reaction of the immune system following exposure to a virus, for example. Since the start of the pandemic, Quebec hospitals have therefore observed a marked increase in cases.
“The doctor told me that before COVID there was one or two a month. Today, there are every week and it’s been worse for a month, ”says Mme Abramovitch-Gates.
Not just in Quebec
The same worrying trend is observed in the United States, where 33 children and adolescents have died of more than 2,600 cases related to the coronavirus.
“I think we don’t talk much about it here, because we don’t want to close schools. But I too think that in the end there are more benefits to keeping schools open, ”concludes little Jacob’s mother.
The 7-year-old will not return to school before April, however. Hospitalized for 10 days in February, he continues to get better at home, but he still has not found the energy that characterized him, testifies Mr.me Abramovitch-Gates.
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