Children diagnosed with MIS-C need urgent treatment: ChildLife Foundation

The parents should bring their children to ChildLife Foundation’s Emergency Rooms established in government hospitals if they see symptoms of MIS-C (Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children) disease as this can cause them severe discomfort.

Dr. Huba Atiq of ChildLife Foundation said if parents notice symptoms like unusual weakness or fatigue, red rash, abdominal (belly) pain, vomiting and diarrhea, red/ cracked lips, red eyes, swollen hands or feet, they should immediately contact ChildLife Emergency Rooms (ERs) established under public private partnership in all government teaching hospitals across Sindh and Balochistan.

“We received around 25 suspected cases in our Emergency Response Centers across Sindh and out of them three have been confirmed with this disease,” said Dr. Huba.

She added that this syndrome results from an abnormal immune response to the virus with some similarities to Kawasaki Disease and Cytokine release syndrome. “It tends to be more severe in children of less than 1 year of age or children with underlying health problems,” said Dr. Huba.

“Most of the children came with multiorgan failure and they were in shocked condition, however, we managed to stabilize them in our ERs by starting antibiotic treatment immediately,” she added.

She said that ChildLife is using predefined WHO guidelines to identify these children and providing them immediate life-saving medication. This disease has a very good prognosis if identified timely, and children get stabilized.

“Since ChildLife runs children’s emergency rooms in all major public hospitals, we cater to the poorest of the poor,” she added.

It is pertinent to mention that ChildLife Foundation is treating more than 2000 children per day at its 10 Emergency Rooms (ERs) in government teaching hospitals across Sindh and Balochistan. These ERs have been functioning 24x7 despite the current medical emergency.