COVID-19 has caused acute encephalitis, a life-threatening complication, in a number of children in Taiwan, which local physicians believe may be due to factors such as an excessive immune response, immature blood-brain barrier, genes, and the environment.
Of the 22 severe COVID-19 cases of children aged 1-12 as of Sunday, 11 of the patients developed acute encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
For the 10 deaths linked to the disease in that age group since April 19, acute encephalitis was a factor in five of those, the CECC statistics showed.
Physicians have come up with different explanations for the high rate of acute encephalitis found in severe child COVID-19 cases, while the CECC is planning to investigate possible causes of what it described as an “increasing trend” that was also observed in Hong Kong.
