Are the New Kawasaki-like Syndromes in the Children Associated with COVID-19?

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic is severe acute respiratory syndrome is still ongoing since December in almost every countries and cities. This syndrome was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China than first case was seen in Thailand and many COVID-19 cases are detected in all populations, and most of them recovered and age, comorbidities, gender, of COVID-19 deaths and the severity of the infection were changed according to the patients’ additional health risk parameters. Elderly population and people with chronic diseases have been categorized as major risk group, however some COVID-19 positive children have showed Kawasaki disease-like syndromes such as hyper-inflammatory state according to the current state same as adult patients infected by COVID-19. We suggested that glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency can make some children more vulnerable against COVID-19 infection same as adults, since this virus attacks hemoglobin and heme metabolism leading to the increased hemolysis and impaired oxygen transport to the tissues. G6PD deficiency is most affects males. Thus, possible correlation between COVID-19 infection and Kawasaki disease like syndromes in the especially male children should be further investigated and maybe children may be categorized as risk group in the future.