The number of children affected by the outbreak of acute hepatitis cases is rising rapidly in Britain. They were 74 last week according to the UK Health Security Agency; they are now 108 according to the official count of this April 21, including eight children who have received a liver transplant. Of the confirmed cases, 79 are in England, 14 in Scotland and the rest in Wales and Northern Ireland. Cases have also been discovered in the United States, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Israel.
The causes of this epidemic described as unusual are not yet clearly determined, even if there are some serious leads pointing to infections with adenovirus, a family of viruses which most often cause mild symptoms such as the common cold.
Why it remains mysterious. All of the children fell ill between January 1 and April 12, 2022. None of the Britons involved have been vaccinated once morest Covid and a link to existing hepatitis viruses has been ruled out. It therefore remains to investigate the trail of adenovirus infections (77% of cases in the United Kingdom), that of Sars-CoV-2 infection (some children have had Covid) and that still of the drop in immunity. in children with low exposure to viruses due to the lack of contact during confinement.
Quoted by I NewsMeera Chand, Director of Emerging Clinical Infections at UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA)reports:
“Information gathered through our investigations increasingly suggests that this phenomenon is related to an adenovirus infection. However, we are thoroughly investigating other potential causes.
Normal hygiene measures, such as careful hand washing – including supervision of children – and good respiratory hygiene, help reduce the spread of many common infections, including adenovirus.”
