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For months now during the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors have observed a rare but consistent scenario in a small number of kids: It starts with a SARS-CoV-2 infection, which can be mild, even asymptomatic. But weeks after the children seem to have fully recovered, they suddenly come down with symptoms that may include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and severe abdominal pain.
“They had the infection, they got through it. And then all of a sudden . . . they can have this collapse in their bodies a few weeks later,” says Alvaro Moreira, a neonatologist at the University of Texas Health San Antonio who recently coauthored a review on the condition, known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
MIS-C is rare, and not all children who become severely ill or die from COVID-19 develop it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fewer than ...
