COVID-related MIS-C: Down but Not Gone
Research By: Anne Jackson, MD, MPH
Post Date: August 12, 2024 | Publish Date: Aug. 12, 2024
While the COVID pandemic struck hardest among older adults, pediatric hospitals treated a surge of young people who developed a rare and serious condition after SARS-CoV-2 infection called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
Compared to 2021, when as many as 200 new cases occurred weekly, only 117 cases of MIS-C were reported to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023.
An analysis led by Anne Jackson, MD, MPH, and colleagues at Cincinnati Children’s identified cases of MIS-C in 2023 in an administrative database of 47 children’s hospitals across the U.S. The findings suggest that the CDC data does not capture all cases. Details were published online Aug. 12, 2024, in JAMA Pediatrics.
“We identified 221 patients with MIS-C hospitalizations in 2023,” Jackson writes. “Almost half received ICU care (44.3%), 37.1% had treatment for shock, 2.7% required ECMO, and 2.3% died.”
Compared to 2021, a higher proportion of patients were younger and a higher proportion of patients died, changes the co-authors say warrant further study. The authors concluded that MIS-C continues to occur, although rarely, with severe outcomes. They also suggest the potential use of administrative databases to complement traditional public health surveillance.
Cincinnati Children’s co-authors included Patrick Brady, MD, MSc, Matthew Molloy, MD, MPH, and Katherine Auger, MD, MSc, all with the Division of Hospital Medicine. Matt Hall, PhD, with the Children’s Hospital Association, also was a co-author.
| Original title: | Children Hospitalized with MIS-C in U.S. Children’s Hospitals in 2023 |
| Published in: | JAMA Pediatrics |
| Publish date: | Aug. 12, 2024 |
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