Diagram of hepatitis. Image: Taken from the free gallery Unsplash
U.S. health officials earlier issued a nationwide alert, alerting doctors to an unusual case of childhood hepatitis infections that may be linked to the cold virus. And it’s part of a broader investigation into multiple recent “unexplained” cases of severe liver inflammation in children.
The alert comes following hundreds of outbreaks of “mysterious hepatitis” in young children were being investigated in the United States and Europe. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that it is working with its European counterparts to understand the prevalence of pneumonia in children, according to a report by the news magazine Usnews. reason. “Infection with a common cold virus called adenovirus has been demonstrated in several cases of pneumonia in Europe, but not all cases of pneumonia are caused by this.”
British health authorities said yesterday (21) that they had so far confirmed a total of 108 cases of childhood hepatitis, “in some cases so severe that an infected child requires a liver transplant.” According to European Disease Prevention and Such new infections have also been reported in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. In an alert issued by the U.S. health department, doctors were asked to report any suspected cases of unknown origin to state and local health departments. In addition, the U.S. Department of Health recommends that doctors test for adenovirus in young patients with symptoms such as fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, light stools, joint pain and jaundice.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Alabama Department of Public Health have jointly investigated nine cases of unexplained hepatitis in previously healthy children aged 1 to 6 years. The first case of hepatitis of its kind in the U.S. was identified at a children’s hospital in Alabama in October 2021, when the hospital admitted five small patients with severe liver damage, including several with unexplained acute liver failure . Of these cases, several children tested positive for adenovirus.
The more common liver diseases, such as hepatitis A, B and C, were excluded.
