Three pediatric patients in Indonesia died of acute hepatitis in April, according to the country’s health ministry, which has increased the global death toll from a mysterious liver disease affecting children from the United States to Asia to at least four.
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The children hospitalized in the capital, Jakarta, had symptoms including nausea, vomiting, severe diarrhea, fever, jaundice, seizures and loss of consciousness, the ministry said in a statement Monday. Calls on parents to take children who show these symptoms to the hospital immediately.
The ministry is conducting a full set of tests to determine the cause of the disease and has issued a circular to strengthen national surveillance of the disease, the statement said.
Over the weekend, Singapore confirmed a case of acute hepatitis in a 10-month-old baby and investigated whether there was a similar presentation of other cases reported worldwide.
At least one other child has died of acute hepatitis, and more than a dozen others worldwide have undergone liver transplants since the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
Although the cause of the disease has not yet been determined, researchers are studying a family of pathogens called adenoviruses that cause a number of diseases, including the common cold.
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