A view of some of the Texas Children’s Hospital building tops along Fannin St.

Houston’s major pediatric hospitals are experiencing a significant increase in patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children — or MIS-C — a relatively new condition that triggers inflamed organs, most commonly seen in children who have been exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19.

While pediatric COVID hospitalizations have dropped by as much as 50 percent in the Houston area, Texas Children’s Hospital reported an all-time high number of MIS-C admissions in the month of September with 30 patients.

The condition is rare — about 1 in 1,000 pediatric COVID patients develop the illness — but cases have increased nationwide.

Eyal Muscal, chief of rheumatology at Texas Children’s Hospital.

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The condition typically peaks about two to four weeks after a peak in adult COVID cases, Muscal said.

All MIS-C patients at Texas Children’s have been exposed to COVID but showed no symptoms or a mild infection, Muscal said.