In the United States, the health authority has sent out a nationwide appeal for clinicians to monitor symptoms of hepatitis in children, in order to investigate more widely the cases of unexplained hepatitis among children.
To understand the cause of unexplained cases of hepatitis, hepatitis, among young children, the US national public health agency, the CDC, says they are working with their counterparts in Europe to find the cause of the infection. Reuters.
In many infected children in Europe, the common cold adenovirus is found, but not in all cases. UK health authorities said on Thursday they had identified 108 cases of hepatitis among children and that some cases were so severe that children needed a liver transplant.
Several cases in Europe
Cases have also been reported in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, according to the European Agency for Infection Control (ECDC). Physicians in the United States are now required to report all suspected hepatitis cases of unknown causes to their state or local health authorities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now urging doctors to look for seizures in children with hepatitis. US doctors are also urged to test children with symptoms of hepatitis A. The CDC’s warning to US physicians is the result of nine cases of unexplained hepatitis in previously healthy children aged one to six years that were reported by the Alabama Public Health Agency.
First cases in Alabama
The first cases were reported in the United States in October 2021 at a children’s hospital in Alabama that received five children with unexplained liver damage, some of whom had acute liver failure. The two most common forms of hepatitis, A, B and C, can be ruled out, and all chimeric infants have been shown to be infected with adenovirus.
When the hospital examined medical records, it found four more cases of children with liver damage and adenovirus infections. In Alabama, no other cases have been found, in addition to these nine children. The CDC is working with the US Department of Health to identify cases in the United States.
14 cases in Scotland
In Scotland, the Public Health Agency warned of unusual cases of hepatitis among children on April 6, and now 14 cases have been identified there, with another case being investigated this week.
The leading theory is that unexplained cases of hepatitis in children are caused by a specific type of adenovirus but other potential causes are also being investigated. None of the cases, either in the US or the UK, have been linked to the covid-19 vaccine and in Alabama, none of the nine children infected had covid-19.
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Read more: Unexplained cases of hepatitis in children [Dagens PS]
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