The boy’s cause of death was “a neurological injury related to cardiac arrest,” said Fabrice Michel, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at La Timone hospital in Marseille.
The child was hospitalized in early May with heart problems. Doctors fought for his life for a whole week, but the young patient passed away on Saturday.
In the hospital, the boy tested positive for Covid-19, although he showed no symptoms of the deadly virus, which has already killed more than 304,000 people and infected almost 4.5 million people around the world.
The myocarditis developed by the victim was a “Very rare case”Michel pointed this out. The boy’s medical records are now being carefully examined to determine if he already had pathologies.
Covid-19 was particularly dangerous for the elderly, with children experiencing it mostly in mild form or without symptoms. But news of an increased number of cases of mysterious inflammatory disease, similar to exotic Kawasaki disease, has become a fear for parents after doctors said they may have been linked to the coronavirus.
Kawasaki disease is characterized by high fever, rashes, abdominal pain, conjunctivitis and a red or swollen tongue. Michel asked the parents to contact their doctor if their children showed these symptoms and had a high fever for more than two days.
Since March 1, France has reported 125 cases of the new disease. The patients were between one and 14 years old, with half of them testing positive for coronavirus.
The Marseille boy may be the first death in France, but earlier this week New York governor Andrew Cuomo said three children in his state had succumbed to the Kawasaki-like disease and about 100 were suspected of developing the disease . On Wednesday, a London hospital also reported the death of a coronavirus-positive 14-year-old due to the same complication.
However, the idea of a link between Covid-19 and Kawasaki disease has so far only been speculation that is not supported by scientific evidence. The World Health Organization is only examining the possible connection.
The doctors who spoke to RT about the problem insisted that the reported cases were not cause for panic. “I would not expect Kawasaki to break out in children because Kawasaki itself is rare.” Professor Angelo Ravelli, head of rheumatology at the Giannina Gaslini Institute, one of the largest children’s hospitals in Italy, pointed this out. In addition, Kawasaki is fairly treatable and not that harmful if it is recognized in time, he added.
Professor Anne Rowley of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in the USA was skeptical about the possible connection between the two diseases “Covid-19 is caused by a completely new virus, and Kawasaki disease has been known for 50 years.”
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