QCOSTARICA – A six-year-old girl, with a fundamental neurological problem, became the fourth child fatality due to causes linked to covid-19.
The girl died on January 13 and was a patient in the Palliative Care Unit, confirmed the medical director of the Hospital Nacional de Niños (National Children’s Hospital), Olga Arguedas Arguedas.
Her death is also under investigation.
“We will await the analysis of the case to define with certainty if her death can be attributed to the covid infection or if it was, as in the other cases, of a concurrent cause,” explained the specialist.
The young girl is the fourth to have died from causes associated with covid-19.
The first two deaths, two boys, a nine-year-old and a 12-year-old, died in October. They also had background illnesses that complicated their condition by becoming infected with the new coronavirus.
The third death occurred in the last week of December. It was a case of a two-year-old with cancer, who is also the youngest person to die from causes linked to covid-19 in the country.
Although the highest mortality and morbidity reported by covid-19 occurs among adults, mainly older adults, children, and adolescents are not exempt.
In this age group, there have already been several cases of the so-called pediatric multisystemic inflammatory syndrome, also known as Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
It is a rare condition in children who have or have had covid-19. Its first manifestations occur two to four weeks after the first symptoms appear.
This syndrome presents as an inflammation of different parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, and gastrointestinal organs.
In its latest report, the Minister of Health reported 2,449 deaths related to the new coronavirus and 185,653 confirmed infections since March.
