#Some kids suffer mysterious brain damage from coronavirus, study finds

Enlarge Image

A medical worker and a patient at an infectious diseases department of the Bashlyayeva Children’s City Clinical Hospital that treats children with COVID-19.
Valery Sharifulin/TASS

The coronavirus may be causing scary neurological issues in some children.

Youth may help beat the novel virus itself, but kids may be more vulnerable to a secondary, brain damage-causing ailment which follows coronavirus infection.

The disorder, called COVID-19 pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, is thought to be a debilitating immune response to COVID-19. It is similar to, but much worse than, the Kawasaki-like inflammatory condition previously linked to young adults with the coronavirus, states a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Neurology.

“Increasing reports of children developing systemic inflammatory response requiring intensive care . . . and a further group of children with a far less severe, Kawasaki-like disease . . . suggest that despite the typically mild acute infection, children may be at high risk of a secondary inflammatory syndrome,” reads the study.

“Children with COVID-19 may present with new neurological symptoms,” causing damage to the corpus callosum, which helps the brain’s two hemispheres communicate with each other, the authors write, “in the absence of respiratory symptoms.”

Researchers looked at 27 children who had the coronavirus and pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome. Of the group, four kids had visible brain lesions — and, interestingly, no breathing problems, despite that being a common coronavirus-related symptom.

Of the four children, two were discharged from the hospital in under a month and the other two, while showing signs of improvement, remain wheelchair-bound because of condition-caused muscle weakness.

“Neurological improvement was seen in all patients, with two making a complete recovery by the end of the study,” the study reports.

Brain damage had previously been reported in adults who suffered from the coronavirus, but findings of it in children are new. Prior studies have found symptoms of coronavirus-caused brain damage to include dizziness, headache, seizures and ataxia — a degenerative nervous system disease.

The study authors conclude that, due to the troubling new findings, COVID-19 should be considered when diagnosing children who are presenting neurological issues.