A 26-year-old man hospitalized in Sheba Medical Center for coronavirus is suffering from an inflammatory syndrome linked to the virus that up until now has only been seen in children, Israel Hayom reported.
The young man is a resident of Bnei Brak who, while being hospitalized for coronavirus for a number of days at Sheba Medical Center, has presented symptoms unusual for adult patients, such as multi-systemic inflammatory disease accompanied by a myocardial-infarction, Israel Hayom reported.
Children who similarly show symptoms of the inflammatory syndrome associated with the coronavirus have been seen in Israel, Europe and as far away as the US.
"This is an important case because this is the oldest patient with this complication. This is an indicator that this disease is still mysterious to us and there are complications that we don't know about, or may not think to link to the coronavirus," said Prof. Galia Rahav, director of the Sheba Infectious Disease Unit, who is overseeing the young man's diagnosis and treatment.
In Israel, three children diagnosed with the coronavirus have been reported to be suffering from the inflammatory syndrome. Of them, the oldest is 16 years old, and was hospitalized at Rambam Medical Campus in Haifa. The next oldest is an 11 year old, also hospitalized in Rambam, while the third was hospitalized at Hadassah-University Medical Center.After the three children were hospitalized, the Health Ministry called on hospitals to pay attention to cases of pediatric myocardial infection.
In the US, a small number of children infected with the coronavirus were reported to be treated for the inflammatory syndrome in late April. Ranging in ages from six months to eight years, each were said to have a fever and inflammation to the heart and gut, according to Reuters.
The Bnei Brak man entered the hospital with symptoms similar to the children in the US: fever and severe stomach pain. However, at the time, he didn't know that he also had the coronavirus.
The man was initially thought to have appendicitis, or an infection in his intestine, but it wasn't until his situation began to deteriorate that he underwent a bronchoscopy and a lung sample was taken, Israel Hayom reported.
The test came back showing weak signs for the coronavirus.
"The situation seemed similar to that of the multi-systemic inflammatory syndrome associated with the coronavirus that appears in children," Rahav said.
"Once the [bronchoscopy] test came back with weak signs, it was clear to us that he had corona."
In addition to the bronchoscopy test, the man also received an antibody test for coronavirus, which came back positive.
The young man's situation is considered to be severe; he is currently intubated and is connected to an ECMO device, which will provide him with cardiac and respiratory support until he is recovered.
"His case is very severe. After he had to be resuscitated, it's still too early to know what the prognosis will be," Rahav said. "We know that when children in this scenario receive early treatment, the prognosis is usually good."