BATON ROUGE, La. (The Livingston Parish News) – A second person has died from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a condition health experts have connected to the novel coronavirus in which body parts become inflamed.
The Louisiana Department of Health has been tracking the disease since late May, updating its dashboard weekly on Wednesdays.
This week, health officials revealed that the second Louisiana person has died from MIS-C, which has now reached a confirmed 23 cases in the state. That’s up by four cases from last week’s report.
The cause of MIS-C is still unknown, but according to medical experts, many children with the condition either had the virus that causes COVID-19 or had been exposed to someone with COVID-19.
MIS-C can inflame the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs, and health officials have said it can be “serious and deadly.”
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) defines a case as MIS-C when it meets the following criteria:
— The patient is under the age of 21, with a fever, laboratory evidence of inflammation, and severe illness involving more than two organs that requires hospitalization; AND
— No other plausible diagnoses; AND
— Positive COVID-19 test, or exposure to a confirmed case, within the four weeks prior to the onset of symptoms.
The 23 cases in Louisiana were found in children who ranged in age from 0-19, with 11 years old being the median. Males are being affected nearly twice as much as females, accounting for 15 of the cases.
In terms of race, 10 are African American, six are white, one is Asian, and three fit into both the other and unknown categories. In terms of ethnicity, five are Hispanic and 18 are non-Hispanic.
According to officials, two individuals are currently hospitalized with MIS-C while 19 have been discharged.
David Gray | The News
