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A 17-year-old Georgia boy has died from the coronavirus, becoming the youngest person in the state to be killed by the disease, officials announced on Sunday.
The Georgia Emergency Management Agency released a situation report on Sunday which showed a 17-year-old was recently added to the list of fatalities from the virus.
The teenager from Fulton County has yet to be identified, although he was listed on the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) website as having a pre-existing condition. His death was confirmed by Nancy Nydam, a spokeswoman for the DPH, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Before Sunday, the youngest known death in the state linked to COVID-19 was a 22-year-old woman from West Georgia, the paper reported.
While the coronavirus in normally less severe in children — who typically have only mild symptoms — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an advisory on earlier this month regarding a severe inflammatory condition found in children believed to be associated with the disease.
Doctors describe the inflammatory condition (MIS-C), to be similar to Kawasaki disease, a rare illness that causes swelling in medium-sized arteries throughout the body. MIS-C can cause persistent fever and symptoms that include hypotension, rashes, gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, as well as elevated inflammatory markers, the CDC said.
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The condition was reported in recent weeks in pediatric coronavirus cases in a handful of U.S. states and elsewhere. It’s raised concern for doctors in New York and California as well as those abroad in the United Kingdom.
“Healthcare providers who have cared or are caring for patients younger than 21 years of age meeting MIS-C criteria should report suspected cases to their local, state, or territorial health department,” the CDC advisory said.
Last week, Georgia DPH said nine children had been confirmed to have MIS-C, the AJC reported. Nydam told the paper in an email that the department hasn’t confirmed any deaths from MIS-C in the state.
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In Atlanta, a team of infectious disease and cardiology experts are currently evaluating several cases of the severe inflammatory condition, a spokesperson for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta said, according to the city’s WSB-TV.
It can reportedly affect children and young adults up to 21 years of age.
COVID-19 molecule on March 24, 2020. A 17-year-old Georgia boy has died from the coronavirus, becoming the youngest person in the state to be killed by the disease, officials announced on Sunday.<br data-cke-eol=”1″>
(Photo by CDC/API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Georgia has more than 42,902 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 1,827 deaths from the virus as of Sunday night, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
