While children are typically not severely impacted by a coronavirus infection, an aftereffect of the virus might become more prolific with new, highly contagious strains of the virus circulating around the world, CNN reports.
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) has been discovered in hundreds of children who were otherwise no impacted by coronavirus infections. Presented as damage to heart tissue, MIS-C has been found in 1,659 confirmed cases of children with coronavirus, out of about 2.7 million infected.
Children get infected with the coronavirus at the same rate as adults, but rarely show any of the symptoms or progression of COVID-19. However, if the more contagious variants of the coronavirus cause MIS-C at the same rate as the original strain, the explosion of the condition could increase proportionately.
“All I can say right now is we don’t know,” Dr. Angela Campbell, a CDC medical officer with the Influenza Division, told a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
MIS-C develops in children of color at a higher rate than white children. Black children get the syndrome six times more frequently than white children, and Hispanic children get it four times more frequently. Asian Pacific Islander children are three times more likely than white children to get MIS-C.