TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday (June 15) reported Taiwan's first adolescent to be diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
During a press conference that afternoon, Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC's medical response division, announced 68,939 new local COVID cases and 392 new moderate and severe cases, including 227 moderate infections and 165 severe ones. Of these cases, 143 died, bringing the country's total COVID death toll to 4,546.
There were no new child deaths reported that day, but five children and adolescents were seriously ill, including three cases of MIS-C. None of them have been admitted to an intensive care unit, but one was diagnosed with encephalitis and another with bronchiolitis.
The oldest of these MIS-C cases is a 13-year-old boy who has no underlying conditions and has received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine.
The case was diagnosed on May 3 after he developed a high fever, and then the fever returned on June 6. By June 10, the boy was suffering from multiple symptoms including fever, extensive skin rash, conjunctivitis, sore throat, headache, chest tightness, and shortness of breath.
On June 11, he was sent to an emergency room and, after undergoing a blood test, he was diagnosed with MIS-C. He is currently undergoing treatment in the general ward.
The other two MIS-C cases reported on Wednesday include a five-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who had not been vaccinated. They were diagnosed in early and mid-May, respectively.
They experienced symptoms such as fever, rash, and red eyes three to five weeks after COVID diagnosis, and when they were taken to the hospital for medical treatment, they were diagnosed with MIS-C. They are currently being hospitalized in the general ward in stable condition.
According to CECC statistics, there are a total of 54 severe COVID cases in children aged 12 and under in Taiwan, including 19 cases of encephalitis, 10 cases of pneumonia, three cases of sepsis, five cases of croup, 10 cases of MISC-C, two cases with comorbidities, and five cases that died at home. In addition to the five that died at home, another five died from encephalitis, four from pneumonia, two from sepsis, and one with a comorbidity.
