Doctors are beginning to see the mysterious coronavirus-linked inflammatory disease in young adults after finding it in children and young adolescents, according to The Washington Post.
Physicians told the news source they are seeing the disease in patients in their early 20s. Some doctors told the Post that they fear the amount of cases is undercounted because people may believe it is only present in children.
“The older ones have had a more severe course,” Jennifer Lighter, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at NYU Langone hospital in New York City, told the newspaper.
A 20-year-old presented the condition in San Diego, a 25-year-old was diagnosed at Northwell Health’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center and several patients in their early 20s were hospitalized with the syndrome at NYU Langone.
The news comes following an emergency advisory issued last by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asking that health care providers report instances of pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome. The condition, health officials say, is similar to Kawasaki disease — a rare illness that causes inflamed blood vessels, typically in young children.
In New York City, the number of patients reported with the disease has continued to rise even as cases of coronavirus decline in the city. As of Thursday, New York City has reported 147 children with the condition.
At least four children in New York and a 15-year-old girl in Maryland have died from the disease, according to the Post.