Getty Images The World Health Organization on Friday announced an outbreak of hepatitis (inflammation of the liver) in children under 10 in 74 children so far in the United Kingdom. Such inflammation can be caused by a variety of infections and toxins. Hepatitis A, B, C, E and D viruses have been ruled out in the United Kingdom. Symptoms in children date back to January and include jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. During the test, they had significantly elevated liver enzymes. Some of the children needed treatment and six have undergone liver transplants so far. Some cases have also been reported in Scotland and Spain. Science reports cases in Denmark and the Netherlands. Also on April 15, the United States reported cases in Alabama. Virus tests have shown SARS-CoV-2 (which causes Covid) in some children. Others had an adenovirus infection and some showed signs of both viruses on the test. The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 9 children with acute hepatitis. Adenovirus-41 has been found in all of these children. Two needed liver transplants. No epidemiological link has been found between the cases. The CDC is developing a national health advice – which will be forwarded to all states, alerting them to the problem and asking them to report any more suspicious cases. Whenever there is an increase in unusual cases above expectations, public health experts take action by conducting epidemiological tests and analyzes. They are a case definition. Investigators will test this initial hypothesis and obtain detailed case histories, as well as conduct extensive laboratory testing. All of this will be standardized to collect uniform information. One hypothesis put forward by Scottish researchers is that perhaps the diseases are more serious because they infect “immunologically naive” children who have taken refuge throughout the Covid pandemic. It is unknown how many of the children had previous infections with Covid. None of the Scottish children had been vaccinated. The other reports did not provide this detail for their cases. The adenovirus usually causes respiratory symptoms or conjunctivitis (pink eye) and is quite easily transmitted. Others have caused outbreaks in the military. Additional manifestations include inflammation of the bladder or neurological disease. According to a review, Type 41 usually causes gastroenteritis in children, although usually in children under 2 years of age. Benjamin Lee et al. Also note that adenovirus gastroenteritis 41 is a major cause of diarrhea in low- and middle-income countries, second only to rotavirus. It is a common cause of hospitalization. There is no specific treatment for adenovirus. The treatment is supportive, with fluids to prevent dehydration. Again, we do not know that adenovirus is the cause of all these infections. is the top candidate right now. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. The outstanding feature so far is the severity of the hepatitis infection in these children and the number that needed a transplant. Further monitoring and studies need to be done. Stay tuned.
