05:45 PM
Wednesday 20 April 2022
Books – Ahmed Gomaa:
The Ministry of Health and Population directed the directorates of health affairs at the level of the Republic to take the necessary measures to inform them of any cases of infection that meet the definition of the case, following monitoring cases of unknown source of hepatitis in children in several European countries.
According to a letter to the Head of the Preventive Medicine Sector at the Ministry of Health, it was stated on the website of the World Health Organization that 7 cases of hepatitis of unknown cause were detected in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, in addition to monitoring 3 cases in Spain, and all cases were children aged Between (11 months and 13 years), 6 cases underwent liver transplants, and there were no deaths among the cases.
The letter said that the organization’s website reported that there is no travel history for the infected cases, and there is only one epidemiologically related case, the symptoms were a marked increase in liver enzymes with the appearance of some symptoms such as jaundice, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, and infection with types of liver viruses were excluded.
The letter referred to the definition of a confirmed case of infection, as any child of 10 years of age or less suffering from acute hepatitis, and no hepatitis A to E virus has been diagnosed, with an increase in AST enzymes (transaminase)
) or (ALT) above 500 IU starting on January 1st.
On Tuesday, the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it had detected unknown cases of hepatitis in children in four new European countries, two weeks following Britain revealed similar infections on its soil.
“Following the reported cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin by the NHS in early April, additional cases were reported in children in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain,” the European Agency said in a statement.
Nine suspected cases have also been identified in children between the ages of one and six years in the US state of Alabama, according to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The center explained that “investigations are continuing in all countries where cases have been reported. At the present time, the exact cause of hepatitis infections is still unknown,” but British investigators “consider that a type of infection is most likely caused by the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the cases.”
The World Health Organization said, on Friday, that it expected new reports in the coming days, following it reported “less than five” cases in Ireland and another three in Spain.