- Dangerous form of pediatric hepatitis is spreading in Europe and the United States.
- The CDC has released new details on how the mysterious disease began in 9 children in Alabama.
- Vague symptoms include diarrhea progressing to jaundice.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are revealing new and striking details about the symptoms that children with a mysterious form of liver inflammation experience while ill.
On Friday, the CDC released a new, more detailed report on the nine confirmed cases of adenovirus-related hepatitis that were observed in Children’s of Alabama between October and February. Three of the patients suffered from acute liver failure and two needed a liver transplant. All patients are under the age of seven, with the majority (five of them) being infants under the age of two.
WHO researchers are also concerned about this growth and are following a similar outbreak of hepatitis in Europe. About 10% of these patients needed a liver transplant and at least one child was dead.
Dr Philippa Easterbrook, a senior scientist at the WHO Global Hepatitis Program, said in a question and answer on Thursday that this type of “severe hepatitis is uncommon” in children, especially because “most of these children have previously were healthy “and there does not seem to be a common type of environmental exposure that young people have had to a toxin or metal that could make them ill.
More cases of unusual hepatitis have been reported in North Carolina and Wisconsin, where health officials have reported a possible death.
Jaundice, a signal that the liver is not working properly, is a common symptom
Both the CDC and the WHO say that two of the first signs to look out for in young children at home are:
If hepatitis progresses, caregivers may notice signs of jaundice, including:
- yellow eyes
- Yellowing of the skin
Keep in mind that these reports of severe pediatric hepatitis in the United States and Europe are still quite rare. So far, about 170 cases have been registered in 16 different countries, said Richard Peabody of the WHO on Thursday.
Experts aren’t sure what exactly is causing the inflammation in the liver, but suspect that a virus called adenovirus 41, which has been found in many sick children, may have something to do with the condition. All nine children in Alabama have been infected with adenovirus, and at least seven have tested positive for other viral pathogens, including Epstein-Barr virus, RSV and rhinovirus. None of the Alabama children tested positive for COVID.
But the recent surge in pediatric COVID-19 infections is still likely to play a role in this outbreak, suppressing children’s immune systems’ ability to fight other new pathogens after COVID (so far this is the only theory scientists have , requires more investigation.) Experts say it is very unlikely that COVID-19 vaccines have anything to do with this problem, as most sick children are too young to be vaccinated.
As viruses are spread through close contact and – in some cases – by people who accidentally put feces in their mouths, basic hygiene measures, including good, regular hand washing and the same masking, distancing and ventilation protocols recommended against COVID- 19, are the best means of prevention that clinicians recommend against this hepatitis.
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