Xinhua News Agency, London, April 29 (Reporter Guo Shuang) The British Health Security Agency issued a bulletin on April 29, saying that the number of children with hepatitis of unknown etiology in the United Kingdom has increased to 145. .
In the past four days, there have been 34 new cases of hepatitis of unknown etiology among children in the UK, bringing the total number of cases to 145, the UK Health Security Agency said. Ten of the patients received liver transplants, and no patients have died so far.
According to the bulletin, such cases mainly occur in children under the age of 5, with symptoms of gastroenteritis such as diarrhea and nausea in the early stage of the disease, followed by jaundice. The common hepatitis A, B, C, D and E viruses that cause infectious hepatitis have not been detected in reported cases.
The findings suggest that an increase in childhood hepatitis cases may be associated with adenovirus infection. Because the symptoms of these childhood hepatitis cases are not typical of adenovirus infection, experts are still investigating other possible causes, such as new coronavirus infection or environmental factors.
At the same time, the UK Health Security Agency said that it is still investigating whether the increase in childhood hepatitis cases of unknown etiology is due to the increased susceptibility to the virus due to the reduction of children’s exposure to the virus during the new crown pandemic due to epidemic prevention measures, and whether it is due to changes in the adenovirus genome Wait. A small number of children over the age of 10 are also currently being investigated as part of the survey.
Will Owen, professor of virology at the University of Nottingham, UK, said adenovirus infection is a possibility, but it has not been proven. There are few case reports of adenoviral infection associated with hepatitis in immunocompetent children or adults in the global literature, so “if adenoviral infection is indeed found to be associated with this disease outbreak, an explanation is needed for why the natural history of adenoviral infection in 2022 So much has changed over the years.”
In addition to the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Ireland and other countries have recently reported cases of hepatitis of unknown etiology in children.
[Editor in charge: Hu Xiaoshan]