Unexplained mystery of the sudden deaths of children in Thessaloniki: what could be hidden? Kapravelos explains

For hasty assessments and diagnoses at the moment, regarding the deaths of two children at the Hippocratic Hospital of Thessaloniki, of the 7-year-old and the 3-year-old, since both cases are being investigated, spoke on the show «Society Hour MEGA», the Nikos Capravelos, director of the B’ ICU of the «Papanikolaou» hospital.

«It's early. It's a sudden death for the 7-year-old child, he's being investigated. For the 3-year-old it is still being investigated so the diagnosis can be tied up. We are all shocked. It is premature to make assessments and diagnoses», said Mr. Kapravelos.

He argued that apparently behind both cases is an infection, however, the causes of death can be encephalitis, meningitis and many others. «In hospitals we do not only see citizens who come with underlying serious diseases. We saw it with the coronavirus, we have patients who had no underlying diseases, got infected and lost their lives. These are what we call sudden deaths, infections, we live them every day.».

Not excluded the connection with long covid

According to Mr Kaprabelos, such deaths are very rare, but they do occur. «Due to infections, due to resistant microbes, this air conditioner disease is a microbe that can cause a lot of damage, affecting many organs at the same time. Tests will be needed to prove this. {...} These are rare cases, very rare. That's why they are of great interest. I haven't heard of such cases in years. Not that they don't exist, but they are rare. [...] The questions are big. It's not something ordinary like the fungus that was given a big dimension. The fungus does not threaten public health, but the hospitals that need to be particularly careful,’ said the director of the second ICU of the »Papanikolaou« hospital.

Finally, Mr Capravelos said that «there is a good chance that it is a syndrome after a coronavirus infection, even though the child (the 3 year old) had not passed, had not been reported, the parents had passed coronavirus, but we found many antibodies in the serum of the young child and the whole symptomatology fits to be long covid. [...] Let's not be in a hurry, we are on the investigation track. Histological tests take time, up to weeks. Difficult to diagnose, but there will be answers soon».