TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan reported its first case of a child who died from myocarditis after contracting COVID and four other cases of critically ill children who had contracted the virus were also announced that day.
During a press conference that afternoon, Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC's medical response division, announced that a three-year-old boy with a history of developmental delay had been sent to the emergency room on July 12 because of suspected COVID symptoms, including a 40-degree Celsius fever, diarrhea, decreased appetite, and fatigue. Doctors found that the boy had low blood pressure, shortness of breath, and pectus excavatum (funnel chest).
The boy tested positive for COVID and was immediately hospitalized. On July 13, the patient's condition deteriorated, and he was intubated and transferred to an intensive care unit.
Doctors administered Remdesivir, immunoglobulin, and other drugs to the patient. However, the child was declared dead on July 17 after suffering multiple organ failures.
The child's cause of death was determined to be acute myocarditis and a COVID infection. Lo said that this was the first case of a child in Taiwan who died from myocarditis after contracting COVID.
Lo announced four other cases of critically ill children that day, including three who are suffering from Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and one case of severe pneumonia. Lo stated that the patient with severe pneumonia is an 8-month-old baby boy.
Lo said that the infant started to have a fever on July 6 and began to become listless on July 7. A chest X-ray showed that the child had developed pneumonia and a test for COVID came back positive.
Doctors' initial diagnosis was pneumonia with respiratory stress and septic shock. Lo explained that the hospital admitted the case into an intensive care unit, placed him on a ventilator, and detected the presence of three infections.
In addition to COVID, the child was also infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae which was detected in his urine, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa which was detected in his blood. Doctors administered Remdesivir and antibiotics. The child was diagnosed with multiple infections complicated by pneumonia and sepsis and is the first case of a COVID-positive child with multiple infections in Taiwan.
According to CECC statistics, there are a total of 108 severe COVID cases in children under the age of 12 in Taiwan, of which 99 were not vaccinated and only nine had received one dose of the vaccine. There are 68 severe cases aged 0 to five, accounting for 63% of the total.
There are 40 severe cases between the ages of six and 12, accounting for 37% of the total.