Jakarta –
The Indonesian Ministry of Health reported that 3 referral children from East Jakarta and West Jakarta died allegedly due to acute hepatitis of unknown cause. Various speculations arose regarding the alleged causes, ranging from adenovirus to COVID-19 vaccines.
Regarding speculation linking it with the COVID-19 vaccine, the Chair of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) COVID-19 Task Force, Prof. Zubairi Djoerban, reminded that this is not in accordance with scientific facts.
“This hypothesis is not supported by data, because most of the children affected by this mysterious hepatitis have not received the COVID-19 vaccination,” he said in a personal tweet on Twitter, quoted with his permission.
Meanwhile, epidemiologist Dicky Budiman from Australia’s Griffith University mentioned the possibility of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which has not yet been detected. This is possible precisely because many children have not received the COVID-19 vaccination.
“This child is very late in getting the vaccine. Only recently have received the vaccine and even then after 6 years, not many have received two doses, when there is a faster variant of Omicron and so on, they become victims,” explained Dicky to detik.com, written Tuesday (3/3). /5/2022).
This assumption is reinforced by several long cases of COVID which are also accompanied by hepatitis. He also emphasized that the groups that are vulnerable to fatal impacts are children with poor nutritional status.
The World Health Organization WHO in its latest report mentions adenovirus as the most likely hypothesis. Of the more than 170 cases reported in 12 countries, 74 cases were detected to be associated with adenovirus type 41.
Regarding the 3 cases of death in Indonesia, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, who once served as Director General of WHO Southeast Asia, hopes that the Ministry of Health will conduct an examination and immediately announce the results. Including the results of laboratory tests for Hepatitis A, B, C, and E.
“Besides that, of course also how the results of the presence or absence of Adenovirus 41 which is now widely suspected as the cause of Hepatitis across this continent,” wrote Prof. Tjandra via short message to reporters.
NEXT: Symptoms of ‘mysterious’ acute hepatitis
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