COVID-19 virus reaches 8-year-old girl's brain, putting her in coma before killing her
The doctors stated that the girl initially developed a fever and suffered multiple seizures. She also had a headache, a bumpy rash on her arms, legs and torso, and was vomiting.
Doctors in China have revealed that an eight-year-old girl died after the COVID-19 virus reached her brain. Sharing the story in a medical journal, they stated that the girl suffered a rare, deadly side effect of the virus, which gripped the world for nearly two years and is now witnessing a resurgence.
The doctors stated that the girl initially developed a fever and suffered multiple seizures. She also had a headache, a bumpy rash on her arms, legs and torso, and was vomiting. However, because of a lack of an "identifiable trigger", she wasn't tested for COVID-19. But her condition worsened, and she had to be intubated to help her breathe after she was "frothing at the mouth" and her "limbs stiffened and shook".
Tests conducted at the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Centre showed that the girl was suffering from a rare brain disorder called acute necrotising encephalopathy (ANE). The "likely" cause was a COVID-19 infection, which came back positive, the doctors stated in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases. Nine days after her first symptoms emerged, the girl was declared brain dead and was taken off life support.
Studies have shown that COVID-19 can reach the brain and cause neurological issues, Mail Online reported. Meanwhile, doctors at Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Centre said doctors are still trying to understand the best way to treat children with COVID-19 who suffer "rapid-onset neurological decline".
They also found traces of Rotavirus in her stools and blood. But the doctors stated in the journal that the COVID-19 virus was a more likely cause of the neurological complications.
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"Despite aggressive therapy, the patient remained in profound coma without sedation," the medics added.
What is Acute necrotising encephalopathy?
The condition the girl suffered happens when the body's immune system overreacts to a common virus like COVID-19 or the flu. The body suffers internal inflammation, and tissue throughout the body is damaged. When this happens in the brain, toxins and bacteria enter it and the kill tissue. The brain slowly swells, and cells die.
Doctors say it is incredibly rare, and only about a hundred cases have been documented in medical literature.
