London (AFP)

A 14-year-old adolescent with no underlying pathology died in the United Kingdom from an inflammatory disease with symptoms close to Kawasaki disease, probably linked to the new coronavirus, according to his medical team, cited in particular by the journal The Lancet.

The teenager was part of a group of eight children with this rare disease, treated in April at the Evelina Children's Hospital in London.

He spent six days in intensive care and tested positive for Covid-19 after his death, his doctors said in The Lancet.

The other children survived, hospital medical director Sara Hanna told the British press agency Press Association.

In total, fifty children with this serious inflammatory disease had been admitted until Tuesday in this establishment in the British capital, about half of which have been able to return home, she added.

Most are of school age and some are less than 5 years old. The majority were in good health before falling ill. Only "a small number" tested positive for the new coronavirus, detailed Dr. Hanna.

This inflammatory disease, which appeared recently, resembles Kawasaki disease, a vascular syndrome affecting young children and the cause of which remains unknown.

Symptoms in young patients - with and without Covid-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus - include high fever, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal upset, and heart inflammation.

At the end of April, the British Minister for Health, Matt Hancock, said that the health authorities were trying to establish the existence of a potential link between the new coronavirus and this disease.

Several dozen cases have been reported in the United Kingdom, but also in the United States, France, Italy or Spain, of children affected by these symptoms. If the link to Covid-19 is not formally established, scientists consider it likely.

© 2020 AFP