For the past few weeks, the number of children with pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome (PIMS) has increased sharply in France, due to the circulation of Covid-19. These disorders, appearing on average 4 to 5 weeks after infection with the virus, could be avoided thanks to vaccination.
In its latest report, published Thursday, January 27 and deciphered by The Parisian, Public Health France (SPF) alert on the increase in cases of pediatric multi-systemic inflammatory syndrome (PIMS). The High Authority for Health (HAS) informs that this syndrome is one of main severe forms of Covid-19 among minors and presents a “risk of cardiac decompensation in the acute phase”.
Since the end of December, Public Health France has been reporting “a very marked increase cases of PIMSwith about twenty new young patients identified each week. Most often, these children or adolescents are under the age of 11 and have had to be hospitalized. Since the start of the pandemic, 849 cases in total, linked to Covid-19, were counted. According to figures from SPF relayed by The Parisian, 353 of them were placed in intensive care at one time and 250 in a continuous care unit. For two-thirds of these patients, PIMS resulted in myocarditis.
How to detect this inflammatory syndrome?
Since December, the number of children infected with Covid-19 has exploded: 5,000 positive cases for 100,000 children under 10 over the last week, recalls The Parisian. However, the PIMS syndrome has for the particularity of appearing four to five weeks on average after infection with the virus. The HAS therefore expects more and more cases of these inflammatory syndromes and calls for “vigilance”. But then, how to detect cases of PIMS? The main symptoms are a high fever (often above 39 degrees), deterioration in general condition (fatigue, loss of appetite, chills, etc.) and digestive disorders (diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, etc.).
Biological tests are possible to make a diagnosis of PIMS but “any suspicion implies hospital care without waiting for the results”, encourages the High Authority for Health. Even children without comorbidities can present with this inflammatory syndrome. Also, according to a study by the American health agency published in early January, vaccination would protect children from the risk of developing this serious form. Two doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be 91% effective in hospitalized adolescents aged 12 to 18. Other encouraging data: “very few sequelae are observed” the months following a serious PIMS having even led to the hospitalization of the child, assures Public Health France.