Rare inflammatory syndrome impacting children now in 25 US states, Cuomo says
PMIS discovered in 157 children in New York as CDC instructs doctors to alert officials to likely cases
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Your support makes all the difference.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state has identified at least 157 children impacted by an inflammatory disease doctors believe is related to coronavirus infections.
The disease has been found in 25 states and 13 countries, nearly doubling the numbers reported last week.
"The more they look I believe they more they will find," Governor Cuomo said at his daily press briefing on Thursday. "From a point of infection, or resolution of the infection — meaning you have antibodies — how long until the onset of this syndrome? I don't believe they have an answer for that. ... That's what's so difficult and frightening about this. There is no roadmap."
Cases of paediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PMIS) — which exhibits symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease — have been found in children across the US. At least three children in New York have died, the governor said.
Symptoms include persistent fever that lasts three to four days, gastrointestinal issues and rashes. Some patients in the US have reported eye inflammation similar to conjunctivitis.
Earlier this month, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene began receiving reports of children with PMIS symptoms.
From mid-April to the beginning of May, 15 patients between the ages of 2 and 15 years old were hospitalised, with several patients admitted to intensive care units, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
By mid-April, the state Health Department discovered more than 100 patients with similar symptoms.
More than three-quarters of New York patients with PMIS are between the ages of one and 14 years old, and 31 per cent of patients are African-American, the state Health Department has reported.
Until there's more clarity about PMIS, New York officials won't determine whether to open summer camps this year. The governor said that as a parent he would not send his children to summer camps.
Summer school programming will be held off-campus, and the state has not yet determined whether to open schools in the fall.
Schools will submit reopening plans and guidelines for approval this summer with the expectation to reopen in September, but it's "still too early" to make the call, the governor said.
Governor Cuomo said "the facts have changed" since the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak as experts learn more about the disease and how children are impacted.
The progress over a vaccine development and other updates will also guide officials to determine when and how to reopen schools, he said.
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