Experts have raised the alarm about a rare but deadly side effect of Covid after a little girl lost her life when the virus spread to her brain.
Doctors discovered that the eight-year-old developed a fever and suffered several epileptic seizures a few days after unknowingly contracting the infection.
However, she was not initially tested for Covid, as her symptoms had no 'identifiable cause', according to Chinese doctors who shared her case in a medical journal.
It was only after the seizures worsened, leaving her 'foaming at the mouth' and 'her limbs tensed and began to shake', that she was transferred to another hospital and placed on a ventilator to help her breathe.
Tests later showed she had developed a rare brain disorder called acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE), which was 'most likely' caused by the Covid infection.
But her condition worsened and, nine days after she first sought medical help, doctors declared her brain dead and removed her life support.
Previous research has shown that Covid can reach the human brain, causing breathing difficulties and neurological problems.
However, doctors at the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center said there are still huge gaps in doctors' knowledge about how best to treat children with Covid who experience 'rapid neurological decline'.
The day after the symptoms appeared, she experienced her first tonic-clonic seizure, where she began foaming at the mouth.
These types of seizures involve electrical disruptions in some parts of the brain, which then affect many parts of the body.
They cause muscle tightening, and usually the hands and feet begin to tremble rapidly and rhythmically.
After being transferred to a hospital in Guangzhou, she experienced another one-minute seizure that left her vomiting and was treated with antibiotics for a suspected infection.
Doctors stopped a third seizure the next day by giving her diazepam, but she then fell into a coma, and was placed on full ventilation.
Transferred to the second hospital, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, tests revealed that her saliva was positive for Covid.
Rotavirus — another respiratory infection — was also detected in stool and blood, however doctors said the Covid virus was more likely to be the cause of the neurological complications.
"Despite aggressive therapy, the patient remained in a deep coma without any sedation," the doctors added. GazetaExpress reports.
She showed no sensitivity to pain, could not breathe on her own, and had limited brain function.
Two additional medical evaluations over the next two days declared him brain dead due to seizures caused by the virus.
"Covid is the most likely dominant factor in this severe encephalopathy – although a co-infection cannot be completely ruled out," the report's authors wrote.
"Without autopsy or direct identification of the pathogen in brain tissue, the ultimate cause remains unclear."
The case also proves that children and babies do not necessarily get Covid more easily, they added.
"This case highlights the urgent need for early recognition of neurological complications in children with Covid."
"Physicians should be very alert to unusual presentations, including rapid neurological deterioration after infection."
In the United Kingdom, ministers have reiterated that they will not reimpose lockdown measures unless a catastrophic variant of Covid emerges.
A "wall of immunity" built by repeated waves of infections and vaccinations has increased the authorities' confidence in leaving pandemic-era measures behind.
However, outbreaks of Covid cases could still cause mass illness in the country, bringing chaos to schools, the healthcare system, and public transportation.
But authorities are no longer tracking the spread of the virus in the way they used to, in an effort to return life to pre-pandemic normality. /Express newspaper/
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