Today clinicians may diagnose hundreds of people with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We report the case of a child with asthma who sought care for COVID-19 symptoms whose condition did not improve despite appropriate treatment for asthma, pneumonia and COVID-19. Further examination revealed a surprising underlying disease. It is important to consider that in pandemics such as COVID-19, because all attention is paid to the disease, underlying hidden causes may be neglected.