Doctors in Europe are seeing an alarming rise of rare, life-threatening complications among children with the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
However, it’s not certain how common these complications are or whether they’re necessarily connected to the viral disease.
According to Gizmodo, Italian and UK health officials have been receiving accounts of these cases from local doctors in recent days.
These complications appear to resemble two rare and similar conditions that can cause widespread damage to the body.
One is toxic shock syndrome, and the other is a blood vessel disorder known as Kawasaki disease.
Toxic shock syndrome is usually caused by a bacterial infection that produces a build-up of toxins that attack the body’s organs.
Kawasaki disease is characterized by swollen arteries throughout the body that can show up as distinctive skin rashes.
