Between March 2, 2020 and January 23, 2022, 932 cases of PIMS were reported to Public Health France, including 849 related to a Covid-19 infection. The number of cases has risen sharply over the past three weeks. What is it exactly? Should we worry about our children?
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PIMS stands for Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Where syndrome pediatric multi-systemic inflammatory disease in French. In April 2020, several cases of PIMS were reported in children with recent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Since then, Public Health France has been following the occurrence of PIMS very closely. One new balance sheet was published on January 27, 2022 and notes a sharp increase in the number of PIMS since the beginning of January.
What is a PIMS?
The PIMS concern patients under the age of 19, presenting with fever for at least three days and documented recent Covid-19. The symptoms of a PIMS can be cutaneous manifestations, bilateral conjunctivitis, hypotension, cardiac disorders, disorders of the coagulation, gastrointestinal disorders (diarrhea, vomiting, stomach aches). Biology shows markers of inflammation high (ESR, protein C-reactive, procalcitonin). This syndrome is also called Kawasaki-like.
A sharp increase in the number of cases
According to data from Public Health France, 40% of cases involved girls. The median age of the children was 7 years old; 75% of them were under 11 years old and 25% of them were under 4 years old at the time of PIMS onset.
Myocarditis was the most common symptom (66% of cases). Myocarditis is a inflammation muscle tissue of the heart that prevents efficient contraction of the myocardium. It is not uncommon for myocarditis to be caused by virus.
Symptoms of PIMS usually occurred four to five weeks after infection with Covid-19. Among the 849 cases related to SARS-CoV-2 infection, 42% required a intensive care stay and 29% in a continuing care unit. Only one child died. The most affected regions are Ile-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
The number of reported cases has increased sharply over the past three weeks. However, this number is proportional to the very strong wave of contamination which has been sweeping over France since the beginning of January. As a reminder, the number of new confirmed cases has been 400,000 to 500,000 per day in France since the beginning of January. Moreover, even if the symptoms of PIMS are impressive and often require hospitalization, the data in the literature are reassuring. The vast majority of children survive without any consequences. In addition, Public Health France specifies that it ” it is not excluded that the clinical forms of PIMS linked to the Omicron variant prove to be less severe » than those related to variant Delta. So there is currently no need to worry.
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