Transmission of the mysterious acute hepatitis disease can be spread through the air and food.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Recently, information has emerged linking acute hepatitis caused by the Covid-19 vaccine. Responding to this information, Epidemiologist from Gaiah Mada University (UGM), Riris Andomo Ahmad, said that mysterious acute hepatitis had nothing to do with Covid-19 vaccination.
“We need to understand and also disseminate to the public that hepatitis, which has no known cause, can be said to be unrelated to the Covid-19 vaccine,” said Doctor Riris in the webinar ‘KAGAMA Health Talks #8: Recognizing and Preventing Mysterious Hepatitis’ which was broadcast via canal Youtube KAGAMA Channel quoted, Monday (16/5).
However, he admitted that he did not feel strange if there was a hypothesis that suspected that hepatitis, whose cause was unknown, was caused by the Covid-19 vaccine emerging in the community. Because, in some cases of unknown hepatitis in Europe, adenovirus was found.
As is known, one or two Covid-19 vaccines are made using adenovirus technology as a vector to cause the immune system to emerge from Covid-19. However, the comparative data found by doctor Riris stated that all cases of unknown hepatitis reported in the United Kingdom (UK) never had Covid-19.
In addition, the adenovirus used for several Covid-19 vaccines is also a virus that cannot replicate or reproduce. Regarding adenovirus as the cause of unknown hepatitis, actually it is still a hypothesis, because adenovirus is only found in a few or not in all cases of unknown hepatitis.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health received new findings showing that the transmission of the mysterious acute hepatitis disease can be spread through the air and food. Secretary of the Directorate General of Public Health at the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes RI), Dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that the suspicion was due to allegations that were strengthened by several findings of adenovirus in patients with the disease.
“We suspect that the transmission of severe acute hepatitis is estimated in two ways, namely through the air because there is a suspicion of the presence of an adenovirus virus. Then the hepatitis virus is mostly spread through fecal-oral food,” said Nadia.
According to Nadia, the current alternative for prevention is to continue to apply health protocols. WHO itself categorizes probable severe acute hepatitis because the cause is unknown.
During this time, hepatitis is most likely transmitted through food. Therefore, prevention efforts are still running health protocols so as not to get infected. “Wash your hands and then adopt a clean and healthy lifestyle, drink boiled water. Also keep food processing clean,” said Nadia.
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