About the BPSU Study
The British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) which is part of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) are using data collected from Paediatricians by the orange card to study PIMS-TS alone or with Kawasaki Disease and Toxic Shock Syndrome, over the pandemic. It was funded by Public Health England (now the UK Health Security agency UKHSA). The first part of their study was published in the Lancet in March 2021. It covered the period March 2020 -June 2020 and quoted 268 cases of PIMS-TS, which included some with features of KD and TSS. This of course will be a conservative estimate, as it does not cover children who were over 16 years, or undiagnosed, or diagnosed but not hospitalised, or that went straight to PICU care (PICANet collect PICU data separately).
Part 2 of the BPSU study, which will almost certainly not cover recent data, was scheduled to have been published already and no reply has been received on our requests for an updated publishing date.
BPSU quotes and recommendations
“We want to find out how common this condition is across the UK and Ireland”
“We also hope that this surveillance will raise awareness of the condition amongst paediatricians”
“The BPSU will provide useful information about the condition for doctors looking after children with such conditions, public health specialists and researchers who would like to better understand the condition and develop effective treatments.”
“It is likely that these (cases that did not meet the case definition) were milder cases along the PIMS-TS spectrum, which needs to be taken into account in future case definitions”
“Mild cases and those that were not hospitalised or had short hospital stays, may therefore be missed”
“The strong association between SARS-CoV-2 and PIMS-TS emphasises the importance of maintaining low community infection rates to reduce the risk of PIMS-TS. Understanding the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and PIMS-TS could provide useful insight into the pathogenesis of both KD and TSS. Close follow up will be important to monitor rapidly changing epidemiology as well as the short to long term complications in children with PIMS-TS.
(Source BPSU Study)
Our questions arising from the study