multisystem inflammatory syndrome

The abbreviation for this new syndrome is MIS.  It is one of those names that simply describes what happens rather than what the disease is because not much is known about it.  It has appeared as one of the complications of COVID-19, the patients having either had COVID themselves or having been in contact with someone who has had the virus.  It is similar to toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease.  We are reasonably familiar with toxic shock syndrome but not with Kawasaki disease which is a rare disease in children, linked to abnormal immune response and named after the Japanese paediatrician who first identified it.

 MIS most commonly occurs in children so this form of it is marked as MIS-C.

Symptoms are inflammation of various organs in the body accompanied by shock, a fever, a rash and cardiac malfunction. It is deadly although some sufferers have recovered.