More than a dozen Queensland children have been diagnosed with a potentially serious post-COVID inflammatory syndrome this year but an infectious disease physician says those who have been vaccinated are much less likely to develop the complication.
Queensland Children's Hospital infectious disease director Julia Clark said at least 13 children in the state had developed paediatric inflammatory multi-system disorder (PIMS) after having COVID-19 since the start of the year.
Two required intensive care but had since recovered. None of them died.
Dr Clark said a recent US study had found vaccinated children were much less likely to be diagnosed with the potentially deadly inflammatory disorder, which usually manifested within two to six weeks post-COVID.
About one in 5,000 children develop PIMS after being infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Fever is the most common symptom.
"If you don't have a fever, you almost certainly don't have PIMS," Dr Clark said.
Other symptoms can include a rash, swollen lips, hands and feet, red eyes, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and headaches.
"Some children have presented with quite significant abdominal pain, almost like a gastrointestinal illness," Dr Clark said.
She said Queensland children on the whole were presenting to hospital early with PIMS, reducing the likelihood of them requiring intensive care.
"But some children have presented late — there's definitely education to be done."
Lagging vaccination rate putting children at risk
Dr Clark said treatment was with intravenous immunoglobulin — a blood product — and steroids.
"The treatments have very much evolved and so, internationally, outcomes are much better than they were right at the very beginning of the pandemic," she said.
"There are very few deaths now."
Despite the recent data out of the US showing PIMS is much less common in children who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, Queensland vaccination rates in 5-15 year olds continue to lag behind other states and territories.
The latest federal Health Department data shows just 43.65 per cent of Queenslanders aged five to 11 have received one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and 25.73 per cent are double dosed.
In Queensland's 12 to15-year-old age group, 71.77 per cent have been double vaccinated and 76.77 per cent have had one jab.
