Friday Block 2

Friday Block 2

>> for those who have contracted covid-19, you know it could be a debilitating virus that could ravage the body.

And is manifesting itself as a respiratory illness to create gastrointestinal complications, and once the virus has left the body, a rare complication can emerge, and usc has just developed a new treatment for misc.

Here to tell us more is dr. andrew acts, department of pediatrics, and associate professor.

Thank you for being with us.

And w what is misc?

>> it's a fascinating thing that the entire world is just starting to learn about over the last few months.

It's called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, and it's a post-infectious condition after you're recovered from covid.

This is your body's hyper reaction to the healing process.

And it turns out that there are multiple organs that are intensely inflamed and it's not inflamed with the virus itself.

It's inflamed with all sorts of sidakines, and things that the body produces in order to fight the virus.

>> dr. eckert, is this something that only happens in children or can it happen to people of all ages?

>> so at this point, it has been only described in children.

And the average age is about eight.

But it has been described in infants all the way up to children, young adults around the age of 20.

>> and dr. atts, you had a patient come into musc hospital with this condition, and can you tell us what the mother had experienced with her son and the journey of fighting covid-19 and then having to fight a new complication?

>> sure, it's a tale that starts offing difficult to figure out what's going to happen.

And we had a number of -- much higher than what most parents are used to seeing, 103, 105, and we found him to be in shock, high fever with blood pressure with multiple organs.

>> and how did you find the cure?

>> we had the suspicion the minute he came n.

We have seen kids over the last months with a number of symptoms, so bestarted a number of treatments that we typically give in kawasaki disease, is aspirin and steroids, all in an attempt to turn down the immune response that's so out of control.

>> oh, goodness gracious, and him being just a four-year-old boy, so how long did it take for him to completely heal?

>> so he was already on the mend within a couple of days with our very aggressive treatment.

And dr. atts and i were talking about this experimental treatment and whether he would be a candidate.

And that's what we decided to proceed with.

So shortly after that, he was running around and doing great.

And was soon discharged after that.

This was potentially better treatment from asc.

And we gave this police car be product under a protocol, meaning that it has been approved in an emergency situation.

>> i want to thank you so much, dr. atts and eckert for joining us today.

And with that wonderful information we look forward to seeing kj growing after his recovery and hope that no other children get this.

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