NIH has started an observational study has launched to evaluate the short- and long-term health outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children
This includes multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), and to characterise the immunologic pathways associated with different disease presentations and outcomes. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes Covid-19.
Called the Pediatric Research Immune Network on SARS-CoV-2 and MIS-C (PRISM), the study will enroll at least 250 children and young adults ages 20 years or younger from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds at approximately 20 sites nationwide.
NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D, said, “It is critical that we learn how to prevent and treat this rare but very serious syndrome in children.”
He added: “Information gathered through the PRISM study may ultimately help clinicians diagnose and treat MIS-C as well as predict which children are susceptible to the disease.”
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is sponsoring and funding the study.
Research effort
The PRISM study is part of a research effort led by NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to understand MIS-C.
Though SARS-CoV-2 infection usually causes either no illness or only mild illness in children, some children become seriously ill at the time of infection, while others who initially have no symptoms later develop MIS-C. MIS-C is a life-threatening condition marked by severe inflammation of one or more parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs.
The syndrome typically begins several weeks after SARS-CoV-2 exposure and disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic children.
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(With inputs from The OnLook News Research Bureau)
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