The previously healthy children had severe liver damage.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Public health officials in Europe and the United States (US) are still investigating dozens of cases of mysterious severe hepatitis in young children. The disease makes children experience liver damage.
Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. The cause is often a virus.
However, the viruses that normally cause hepatitis A, B, C, D and E have been ruled out in these cases. In some severe cases, children may even need a liver transplant.
So far, no deaths have been reported. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday (15/4/2022) said it was investigating 74 cases severe acute hepatitis in children under the age of 13 in the UK and Northern Ireland.
“Three cases were also reported in Spain,” the WHO said NBC NewsSaturday (16/4/2022).
According to the WHO, it’s not clear when most children’s symptoms begin. But of the first 10 children identified in the UK, nine fell ill in March and one in January 2022.
In the US, nine cases have been reported in children six years of age and under in Alabama. The district medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, Dr Wes Stubblefield, said all the children were healthy before falling ill, and there was no clear link between the children.
Leaving aside the common hepatitis viruses, the current main theory is a different virus, called adenovirus type 41 as the culprit. Five of the nine children in Alabama identified between October 2021 and February 2022 tested positive for adenovirus type 41.
However, adenovirus is a respiratory virus that usually causes the common cold. Generally, the infection is not associated with liver injury.
“This is unusual. This virus has, in the past, not been associated with a constellation of signs, symptoms and liver injury,” Stubblefield said.
In children in Alabama, symptoms include diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Some jaundice develops, and blood tests show signs of elevated liver enzymes.
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