{"id":4043,"date":"2020-04-29T19:30:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T02:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthykidshappykids.com\/?p=4043"},"modified":"2020-07-10T17:40:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T00:40:58","slug":"kawasaki-ace2-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2020\/04\/29\/kawasaki-ace2-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawasaki Disease, ACE-2 & COVID-19: what a pediatrician wants you to know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By now, many of you have heard that the UK has issued an \u201curgent alert\u201d<\/strong> to all British physicians about a rare complication being seen in children called Kawasaki disease (1) – likely linked to COVID-19, upending our previous thoughts that children are \u201cimmune\u201d to serious COVID-19 disease. Similar reports have come out of Italy and Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are increasing reports of other \u201cnon-classic\u201d presentations of COVID-19 in children, including \u201cCovid-toe\u201d and hallucinations. And as I look back over the last month, I\u2019ve seen ALL of these. My son with auditory and visual hallucinations (who ended up needing oxygen for 2 days in the hospital), 3 boys with swollen, bruised, \u201cblood spots\u201d (known as petechiae and purpura) on their toes, and 1 boy with Kawasaki disease. ALL of these boys tested NEGATIVE on nasal PCR swabs for COVID-19, but the UCSF specialists (and I) are convinced ALL of these results are false negatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what do I think is going on?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For the answer to that, we need to look more closely at how SARS-CoV-2 invades our cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How SARS-CoV-2 Invades<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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[All slides are from my FREE masterclass, \u201cA Holistic Pediatrician\u2019s Guide to the Pandemic: How to be prepared & what to do if you get sick<\/a>.\u201d Be sure to watch the replay before it comes down at midnight PST on Friday, May 1, 2020<\/strong>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has spike-like projections that look like crowns (hence the name \u201cCorona-virus\u201d for the Latin word \u201cCorona\u201d which means crown). These spike proteins bind to an enzyme called Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), and once attached, the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 (called RNA) gains entry into our cells. Viruses can\u2019t replicate on their own, so SARS-CoV-2 hijacks our own cellular machinery to make more copies of itself. These copies are then released into our bloodstream to find other cells with ACE2 receptors to invade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s where it gets fascinating. The location of ACE2 in our body explains exactly why there are so many varied symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2. It\u2019s not that SARS-CoV-2 is randomly attacking ALL cells – it\u2019s attacking those cells that have ACE2 attached to their cell membranes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And guess where ACE2 is located?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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ACE2 is attached to cells in our: <\/p>\n\n\n\n