What toxic shock might teach us about kids and Covid
Scientists have found strong similarities between a fatal tampon-related condition and the molecular hallmarks of a complication of the coronavirus.
In the early 1980s, it became clear that some women using new high-absorbency tampons were falling extremely ill. Some of them died. The new condition was called toxic shock syndrome, and linked to an overgrowth of bacteria when the tampons were left in too long. But that was not the end of the story. Some researchers looked more closely at the molecular markers of the disease and found a surprising result: the toxins made by the bacteria bypassed the immune system’s normal way of detecting foreign pathogens. Instead, the toxins clung to the side of receptors on immune cells and sent the whole system awry, leading to problems like an inflammatory “cytokine storm” in the body. In my latest article for The Atlantic, I write about how some of these same behaviors have been observed in the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.
The researchers believe the “superantigen”-like traits of the new coronavirus could explain a complication of Covid in children, known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). You can read more about it in my article:
This week was definitely a busy one — I also had a new article in The New York Times. In a guest essay, I write about how people as old as 114 years in age have survived the coronavirus, and how we need to learn from these “outliers”. In fact, researchers have done this before: they have designed drugs inspired by people who are immune to HIV and also people who inherit gene mutations that cause unusual cholesterol levels. My article is titled: Why the Most Unusual Covid Cases Matter
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/opinion/covid-unusual-cases-study.html
I have more articles coming out in the next couple weeks, so please do stay tuned — and tell your friends about this (free) newsletter if you think they would enjoy it, too: https://roxanne.substack.com/