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Agence France-Presse

An unknown, severe strain of hepatitis has been identified in nearly 170 children across 11 countries in recent weeks, with at least one child dying of the mysterious disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The first five cases were flagged in Scotland on March 31 by “astute clinicians, realising they were seeing something unusual”, said Meera Chand, director of clinical and emerging infections at the UK Health Security Agency.
The children did not have any of the five known hepatitis viruses, A, B, C, D and E, Chand told an emergency presentation at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases on Monday.
Such cases are very rare – the Scottish doctors would normally see four to five unknown hepatitis cases in a year, she said.

🆕 @WHO Disease Outbreak News: Multi-Country – Acute, severe hepatitis of unknown origin in children

As of 21 April, 169 cases (aged 1 month to 16 years old) reported in 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇮🇱 🇺🇸 🇩🇰 🇮🇪 🇳🇱 🇮🇹 🇳🇴 🇫🇷 🇷🇴 🇧🇪. More info 👇 https://t.co/MvxxCmmew9
— Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) April 23, 2022

The United Kingdom has since reported a total of 114 cases, the WHO said in an update on the weekend.
Spain had the next highest number of cases with 13, followed by Israel with 12 and the United States with nine, while small numbers have also been recorded in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, France, Romania and Belgium.
Children aged from one month to 16 years old have had the mystery disease, but most cases have been aged under 10 – and many under five. The large majority were previously healthy.
Before the children showed signs of severe hepatitis, they had symptoms that included jaundice, diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
Alarm raised over significant rise in inflammatory post-Covid condition in kids
Maria Buti, a pathologist in Barcelona and chair of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), said the “main concern” is the strain’s severity.
Seventeen of the children – 10 per cent of the 169 known cases – had such severe hepatitis that they needed a liver transplant, she said.
Aikaterini Mougkou, antimicrobial resistance expert at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), said the cases were “really worrying”.
It was not clear whether even more children had mild cases because their symptoms were not traceable, she told the emergency presentation. “As we do not know the cause, we do not know the transmission route and how to prevent and treat it,” Mougkou said.

Late breaker session at #ECCMID2022 on acute hepatitis cases of unknown origin in children.
So far, 169 cases have been reported from 11 countries since first case was identified in 31 March. 17 have required liver transplant & at least one death has been reported. #IDTwitter pic.twitter.com/tzlB3iGMT3
— Muge Cevik (@mugecevik) April 25, 2022

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver and is generally rare in healthy children.
No common exposure seems to link the patients, the experts said, and the WHO ruled out international travel as a factor.
Chand said there was no link to paracetamol, overdoses of which can cause liver failure.
Any link to Covid-19 vaccines has also been ruled out, because most of the children were not old enough to be jabbed.
Hong Kong researchers say hepatitis C drug might help in Covid-19 treatment
Adenoviruses – common viruses that cause a range of sicknesses like colds, bronchitis and diarrhoea but mostly do not lead to severe illness – were detected in 74 of the cases, the WHO said. Chand said adenovirus was found in 75 per cent of patients in the UK.
She said the “leading hypothesis” was a combination of a normal adenovirus along with another factor that was making it more severe.
One possibility is that young children who have spent their “formative stages” under Covid-19 measures like lockdowns and mask-wearing over the last two years had not built up immunity to these adenoviruses.
Adenovirus rates in the UK plunged during the early stages of the pandemic but have spiked far above previous levels since measures were lifted, Chand said.


An “unexpected increase” of adenovirus cases has been recently recorded in several other countries, including Ireland and the Netherlands, the WHO said.
Other possible causes for the unknown strain could be a combination of adenovirus and Covid-19, or related to previous Covid-19 infection, Chand said. Nineteen of the 169 recorded cases had both Covid-19 and adenovirus, while 20 had just Covid-19.
All the experts emphasised that ongoing investigations needed more time, but Buti said she expected results within a month.
Buti said that because adenovirus is an infectious disease, Covid-19 measures work well against it – particularly children regularly cleaning hands. She also called on doctors to look out for signs of jaundice.


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Medicine

Children being hit by mystery hepatitis strain, some need liver transplant

A 3D illustration shows a liver infected with hepatitis viruses. Seventeen of the children with the new strain needed a liver transplant. Image: Handout

Taiwan targets blood-borne ‘silent killer’ hepatitis C, which affects 58 million people worldwide

Taiwan has about 400,000 cases of hepatitis C, with nearly 7,000 new cases annually, but most of the people that are infected can be asymptomatic and unaware of their condition. Photo: BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock

Tsai Liang-jian, chief of Chikan village in the Tzukuan district of Kaohsiung, was one of the many HCV virus carriers diagnosed during one of the programme’s outreach efforts in the district.

David Lin, country medical director at Gilead Sciences, believes that Taiwan’s superb research and best practices can set a good example for medical professionals around the world.

Dr Yu Ming-lung, chair professor at the College of Medicine at Kaohsiung Medical University, in Taiwan, says that HCV may have spread among residents in rural communities through contaminated medical equipment.

The Taiwanese government reported that there were about 400,000 HCV cases on the island in 2019, with nearly 7,000 new infections each year.

Gilead Sciences

Hong Kong researcher zeroes in on ‘functional cure’ for hepatitis B

Professor Yuen Man-fung has called for Hong Kong to expand hepatitis B testing and introduce citywide vaccinations for hepatitis A. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Professor Yuen Man-fung (left) analyses and discusses the results of hepatitis B research with a researcher. Photo: University of Hong Kong

Don’t separate Covid-positive children from parents, Western diplomats ask China

Shanghai has been separating Covid-positive children from their parents, citing epidemic prevention requirements. Photo: Reuters 

News

World


Cases have been detected in nearly 170 children across 11 countries recently, with one in every 10 new patients needing a liver transplant
The leading hypothesis for the cause of the strain is a combination of a normal adenovirus plus another factor that makes it more severe, such as Covid-19



The leading hypothesis for the cause of the illness is a combination of a normal adenovirus plus another factor that makes it more severe, such as Covid-19.


Children being hit by mystery hepatitis strain, some need liver transplant

Cases have been detected in nearly 170 children across 11 countries recently, with one in every 10 new patients needing a liver transplant The leading hypothesis for the cause of the strain is a combination of a normal adenovirus plus another factor that makes it more severe, such as Covid-19

Cases have been detected in nearly 170 children across 11 countries recently, with one in every 10 new patients needing a liver transplant

The leading hypothesis for the cause of the strain is a combination of a normal adenovirus plus another factor that makes it more severe, such as Covid-19