Europe and the United States have seen sharp surges in recent weeks of a severe immune disorder in children linked to Covid-19, health authorities reported Friday (May 15), sounding an alarm.

At least five children - three in New York, and one each in France and Britain - have died from the syndrome, and at least two other deaths are suspect.

Up to now, Covid-19 has largely spared small children and teens, though many are thought to have been infected without showing symptoms.

Europe has seen some 230 suspected cases of so-called paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS) in children up to 14 years old, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said Friday.

Doctors in Bergamo, northern Italy, reported a 30-fold increase in the incidence of severe inflammatory disorders among young children, with ten cases from mid-February to mid-April as compared to 19 during the previous five years, according to a study this week in The Lancet.

In the US, where well over 100 cases have been identified in the New York area, health authorities have issued an alert for the mysterious illness.

"Initial reports hypothesise that this syndrome may be related to Covid-19," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing Friday, calling on clinicians worldwide to help "better understand this syndrome in children."

France's state-run health watchdog described the likelihood of such a link as "very probable."

Like Kawasaki disease, a rare condition that occurs in very young children, the new disorder can cause persistent fever, searing abdominal pain, rashes and a swollen tongue.

Also compared to toxic shock syndrome, PIMS leads to inflamed blood vessels and, in some cases, damage to the heart.

Ref: straitstimes