<Breaknews Australia=Editor Eddy Kim>
In South Korea, which is suffering from chaos with Covid-19, a "cytokine storm" has killed a teenage high school student and endangered the lives of young patients. Australia is no exception.
Cytocaine storms are easily caused by over-reacting immune systems. This is not a common case. Cytocaine is a protein molecule involved in signal transmission when an external intruder, such as a virus, enters the body. It also induces or inhibits inflammatory reactions.
However, if cytokine is released excessively when the virus penetrates the body, it attacks normal cells. Many infections can cause lung damage and damage other organs such as kidneys. This is a cytokine storm. In general, the immune system protects our body from external attacks, but the cytokine storm rather acts so strongly that it attacks the "owner" backwards.
The exact cause of the outbreak has yet to be confirmed. It is commonly known that many young people develop immune systems. Cytokine storms were also reported in Spain's flu and SARS.
Clive Cookson, editor of Science at the British Financial Times, said early last month that early symptoms of Covid-19 include fever and coughing. Inflammation in the lungs leads to pneumonia," he said, adding that in the worst case scenario, there could be a cytokine storm that destroys other organs as excess immune response appears.
Some raise the possibility that the cytokine storm may have affected the death of a 17-year-old boy in Korea. No other major viruses such as influenza were detected in the boy, as well as the Covid-19.
Jeong Eun-kyung, head of the Korea Central Discharge Countermeasures Headquarters, told reporters at a regular press briefing on Tuesday, "We conducted Covid-19 tests on 17-year-old patients who died and conducted tests for other respiratory viruses together. We tested eight strains of the common respiratory virus, but nothing came out.
However, Jeong Ki-seok, Korea professor of respiratory medicine at the Hallym University Hospital, said, "It is rare, but not impossible, for a 17-year-old boy to suddenly die of high fever and pneumonia. Besides Covid-19, there are many other viruses that we don't know. A healthy child can also die suddenly because of the virus. We believe the possibility of a cytokine storm is low," he said. Rather than an immune problem, it weighed on the worsening symptoms of another viral infection.
Australia also needs to take extra care in managing young people related to the cytokine storm.