Singapore: Although the four-year-old Muhammad Ali Zafir Mohamed Azmi was still active when he went to the nursery on the morning of October 29, when he returned home that afternoon, he complained that he was tired.
Ali had a fever of 38.8 degrees Celsius, and his body temperature dropped after taking the antipyretic ibuprofen. But his mother Marilyn Kakanindin said that his body temperature rose again and remained above 38 degrees Celsius.
Other symptoms, including his involuntary convulsions in his sleep, bruising on his hands and feet, and stomach pain soon appeared.
“He asked me, ummi (mummy), can you massage my stomach? My stomach hurts,” Ms. Cacanindin said, adding that he was also cold.
Five members of the family — Mr. Mohamed Azmi Lendang and his wife Ms. Cacanindin, as well as Ali and his two elder brothers and sisters — contracted COVID-19 and recovered in September. The youngest daughter, one year old, their domestic helper did not contract the disease.
Since the rapid antigen test result was negative, she did not suspect that Ali was infected with the coronavirus again.
Even after going to the general practitioner’s clinic, Ali did not get better, and Ms. Cacanindin asked her husband to send their son to the hospital.
After being admitted to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), Ali moved from the highly dependent ward to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where he was intubated.
The doctor diagnosed him as having Childhood Multiple System Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C), a rare disease that affects some children in the weeks following COVID-19 infection.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) stated on Saturday (November 6) that since the beginning of the pandemic last year, 4 cases of MIS-C have been detected in more than 8,000 pediatric COVID-19 cases in Singapore.
All cases were admitted to hospital in October or November. Except for Ali, other MIS-C cases include two boys aged 3 and 8 years old and a two-month-old baby girl.
Of the four, only Ali is still in the hospital.
On Monday, Dr. Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State of the Ministry of Health, stated at a press conference that a fifth case of MIS-C had been found, but he did not provide further details.
According to the Ministry of Health, the symptoms of MIS-C include a persistent fever exceeding 38.5 degrees Celsius for three days or more. The Ministry of Health added that other symptoms include difficulty breathing, headache, neck swelling, skin rash, swelling of hands and feet, conjunctivitis, diarrhea or abdominal pain.
An international review report in May last year stated that among all children with COVID-19, the incidence of MIS-C was 0.14%, or 14 out of 10,000 cases.
“The manifestation of MIS-C is similar to Kawasaki disease. Kawasaki disease is related to various viral or bacterial infections. It occurs in 150 to 200 children every year in Singapore,” the Ministry of Health said.
In addition to intubation, Ali also took various drugs and placed it on the ventilator for a week. Since then, he has left the ventilator and is still receiving physical therapy in the intensive care unit.
His parents said his condition is now “stable but fragile”, adding that the doctor has not notified them when Ali is expected to recover.
Ms. Cacanindin praised the hospital staff for their efforts to treat Ali, talked with him gently and made sure he was comfortable.
“The doctors and nurses treated him very well, and they were very professional in dealing with Ali,” she said.
Ms. Cacanindin and Mr. Azmi said that they hope that by sharing Ali’s story, other parents will know what to pay attention to if their children are affected by MIS-C.
Ms. Cacanindin also shared Ali’s experience on her Facebook page, which has been shared more than 300 times as of Tuesday night.
She said that Ali’s brothers and sisters miss him very much, and they often ask if they can talk to him and look at his photos or videos.
“They are very worried because they are very close,” she said. “We just want him to recover. Many people are praying for him.”
