Three cases were also reported in Spain. The warning of the Ecdc: “The origin is unknown”. Some little ones needed a liver transplant. An invitation to doctors to investigate suspicious symptoms
British doctors are investigating a mysterious outbreak of acute hepatitis which are affecting very young children, most of them between the ages of two and five. Over the past eight weeks, over 60 cases of hepatitis of unknown origin have been recorded in England and 11 in Scotland. Three other cases have been reported in Spain. For some of the children it was even necessary to undergo a liver transplant and in many the inflammation caused severe organ failure. Children will have to take medications for life. None of them traveled abroad.
The alert from the European Center for Disease Control
The European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) on Wednesday launched an alert because it is a huge number of little patients, taking into account that the event is very rare among children. The alert, which for now does not concern Italy, should not be underestimated. “The situation is worrying regardless of a possible, and for now not demonstrable, link with Covid-19. We cannot exclude that cases will also occur in Italy overnight », he observes Antonio GasbarriniProfessor of Internal Medicine at the Catholic University and Director of the Medical and Surgical Sciences Department of the Irccs Gemelli in Rome interviewed by Ansa.
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is often associated with specific pathogenslike the hepatitis C virus, but it can be triggered by many other factors. Previously there have been small groups of cases caused by thehepatitis A, which can be spread by fecal contamination of food or water. But Hepatitis A to E viruses have all been ruled out in the current outbreak. Finding the cause will require careful investigation of each case to see if they have any factors in common, he says Graham Cooke, an infectious disease specialist at Imperial College London. We talk about hepatitis every time the transaminases are raised, explains Gasbarrini, “this can happen for various causes and, in most cases, it is not relevant. But in this case it is not just a temporary inflammation of the liver, but an acute liver failure that has led in some cases to transplants. Sixty cases in two months in the UK alone is an abnormal number compared to the rarity with which this event normally occurs. All the more so if we consider the very young age group of the affected patients “.
Covid or adenovirus: the origin remains unknown
The mystery about the origin of the inflammation is still deep, the causes are unknown. As written, the viruses that cause various types of hepatitis were not detected in any of the cases analyzed. Some of the children hospitalized in England have turned out positive for Sars-CoV-2, others for adenovirus but there are no documented links between the various cases. Some scientists speculate that the outbreak may have been caused by a rare delayed reaction to the Covid infection. Among the “accused” also adenovirus “although adenoviruses generally do not cause hepatitis which is a rare known complication of the virus” writes UK Health Security Agency. Gasbarrini also explains: “In some cases, children have been found positive for an adenovirus or Sars-Cov-2. It is known that some viral infections, including Covid-19, can cause hepatitis. This may be a likely hypothesis, but the coincidence in time is not enough to determine the cause for now. In any case, the warning is high and we must raise the level of attention in the medical profession “. ‘Hepatitis is unusual in children, and infection in infancy very rarely causes clinical illness. The current number of hepatitis cases in children under the age of 10 is therefore very unusual, ”adds Will Irving, professor of virology at the University of Nottingham.
I sintomi
The UK, in the UK Health Security Agency document speaks of “Public health threat” and asks to raise awareness among pediatricians to keep attention, suggesting a list of tests to do in children with suspicious symptoms. The ECDC asks doctors to “report cases of acute hepatitis in children up to 16 years with serum transaminases, in which hepatitis A to E has been excluded, to the national public health institutes. In particular, doctors are asked to carefully monitor symptoms such as dark urine, pale stools, jaundice, itching, myalgia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, lethargy, loss of appetite and prescribe specialist tests.
April 14, 2022 (change April 14, 2022 | 14:26)
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