Teenagers generally present mild to no symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. In the present report, we present the case of a 14-year-old boy with Angelman syndrome (AS) who presented with severe COVID-19 symptoms. He spent 20 days in the ICU with elevated inflammatory biomarkers (C-reactive protein and D-dimer) and increased peaks of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, which is uncommon for teenagers diagnosed with COVID-19. Although he showed physiological instability, he was able to produce neutralizing antibodies, suggesting a functional immune response. The literature concerning the immune response to infections in patients with AS is still poor, and to our knowledge, this was the first report of a patient with AS diagnosed with COVID-19. As such, the present study may alert other patients with AS or other rare diseases that they lack a competent immune response and could suffer severe consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Disseminated tuberculosis is a severe disease with high-mortality that requires early diagnosis and treatment. Intestinal tuberculosis accounts for only 2% of tuberculosis cases worldwide and is extremely rare in children. We report a case of a 4-year-old girl admitted due to disseminated tuberculosis with extensive intestinal involvement characterized by massive intestinal bleeding and hemorrhagic shock. The severity of the intestinal involvement precluded the exclusive use of oral anti-tuberculosis drugs and the patient was successfully treated with a combination of injectable and oral anti-tuberculosis agents. We discuss the importance of a regimen with injectable drugs for treating severe forms of tuberculosis in which the intestinal involvement impaired the use of oral drugs.