25 May 2020 12:00 am
By JAMILA HUSAIN
The Health Ministry, yesterday said that the present patients admitted at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital, with symptoms of the Kawasaki like disease is not linked to the Covid-19, but paediatricians however, were on alert due to cases being reported globally amidst the pandemic.
Sources from the Lady Ridgeway Hospital told Daily Mirror that the present three to four children who were under treatment for this illness had no connection to the Covid-19 and the country was still to detect any such related illness linked to the virus.
However, paediatricians were on alert as there were cases reported in Europe and the West in recent weeks amidst the pandemic. Director of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital Dr. G. Wijesuriya said that this Kawasaki like disease was present in Sri Lanka for the past 20 years and each year Sri Lanka detected an estimated 50 to 100 cases.
He said doctors here were able to treat this illness but it could lead to complications if not detected early. The illness is most often reported within children below the age of five years, who have been suffering from a viral infection.
The symptoms for this illness include fever which lasts in children for above five days, children stop responding to paracetamol, redness of the eyes and lips, enlargement of the lymph nodes in the neck, a rash on the body and redness of the palms. Dr. Wijesuriya said that if any child suffers from the above symptoms, they should seek medical attention immediately.
A senior medical officer at the Colombo National Hospital said that while the Kawasaki like illness was not new in Sri Lanka, doctors were still researching on the exact cause of it.
Paediatricians in several countries have gone on alert over this disease amidst the COVID-19 pandemic with several cases being reported, with global scientists still studying if this has a direct link to the coronavirus.
In New York, as many as 93 cases of children presenting with a new paediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome likely linked to COVID-19 has been reported. At least three children have died while two more deaths are under investigation.