A first-of-its-kind study, co-led by a physician at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, has found that children who have had multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a life-threatening complication of COVID-19, did not have serious adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine.
The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network, can help parents make more informed decisions regarding the COVID vaccine, said Dongngan Truong, MD, University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, who is co-author of the study.
MIS-C is a rare, extreme immune response to COVID-19, and can cause severe illness involving the heart, lungs, blood, kidneys, or brain. Children with MIS-C are hospitalized, and often require intensive care. MIS-C also has been found to disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic children.
“Until now, there has been limited data on vaccination safety in patients with prior MIS-C,” said Dr. Truong, who is a pediatric cardiologist and expert on MIS-C. “As a result, some parents have been hesitant to give their children the COVID vaccine for fear it may lead to their child getting MIS-C again.”
“We found that none of the children in the study developed MIS-C or myocarditis after receiving the COVID vaccine,” she added. “This information can help give parents peace of mind and additional information for them to use when making decisions about COVID vaccine after MIS-C.”
The study examined data gathered by the MUSIC study (Long-Term Outcomes after the Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children), which Dr. Truong co-leads with Jane Newburger, MD, from Boston Children’s Hospital.
The MUSIC study is the nation’s first longitudinal study to understand how MIS-C is affecting children long-term.
It examines how MIS-C affects the coronary anatomy and ventricular function of the heart over time, as well as the long-term effect of MIS-C on other organ systems such as the nervous, lung, immune, and gastrointestinal systems. Understanding these effects will help researchers better understand the disease, and more quickly detect, treat and manage MIS-C.
The MUSIC study has enrolled over 1200 children with MIS-C. Of those, the families of 385 youths aged 5 years and older from the United States and Canada were included in the study examining vaccination after MIS-C.
Of those 385 children studied, 48 percent, or 185, had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and were included in the study published in JAMA Network. None in the study developed severe adverse responses to the vaccine such as myocarditis or MIS-C.
A 2021 study found that young people under the age of 21 who developed suspected COVID-19 vaccine-related heart muscle inflammation known as myocarditis had mild symptoms that improved quickly. That study, which Dr. Truong was the lead author, was published in the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation.
– Intermountain Healthcare
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