Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli this afternoon said she is concerned about the surfacing of cases in children of Systematic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, otherwise known as Kawasaki Syndrome.

The state had processed 11 reports, including seven more this morning, adding up to 18 cases of children under 18 – specifically between three and 18 – that have shown signs of SIRS.

“They are all under investigation,” said Persichilli.

The counties where the cases have surfaced:

Bergen

Essex

Gloucester

Hudson

Middlesex

Monmouth

Passaic

Union

Warren

“Of the ones reported, four tested positive for COVID-19,” the health commissioner said a day after Dr. Anthony Fauci,  director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified the following to federal lawmakers:

“Because the more and more we learn, we’re seeing things about what this virus can do that we didn’t see from the studies in China or in Europe. For example, right now children presenting with Covid-19 who actually have a very strange inflammatory syndrome, very similar to Kawasaki syndrome.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control:

Kawasaki disease (KD), also known as Kawasaki syndrome, is an acute febrile illness of unknown cause that primarily affects children younger than 5 years of age. The disease was first described in Japan by Tomisaku Kawasaki in 1967, and the first cases outside of Japan were reported in Hawaii in 1976. Clinical signs include fever, rash, swelling of the hands and feet, irritation and redness of the whites of the eyes, swollen lymph glands in the neck, and irritation and inflammation of the mouth, lips, and throat.