(ANSA) – ROME – The global count of hepatitis of unknown causes in children has broken through the thousand cases. According to the latest update from the World Health Organization, 1,010 probable cases had been reported in 35 countries as of July 8. Hepatitis required transplants in 46 children and caused 22 deaths. In recent weeks, however, there has been a gradual contraction of new episodes even if, the WHO warns, “the trend must be interpreted with caution since there may be delays in reporting and limited surveillance in many countries”.
More than three months after the first reports, the pediatric hepatitis epidemic continues to be characterized by uncertainty. The numbers confirm that over 90% of cases are concentrated between Europe and the Americas with the United Kingdom and the United States alone having identified over half of the global cases (272 and 334 respectively). In Italy, according to the WHO report, 36 cases have been identified, for one of them a transplant was necessary. However, it is not clear whether the increased frequency of cases in Europe and the Americas is linked to epidemiological reasons or to the greater ability of surveillance systems to detect the disease. For the WHO, “the current number of cases could be underestimated, partly due to limited surveillance systems”.
The scientific community continues to investigate the causes as well. Attention remains focused on adenovirus infections and Covid: of the cases detected to date, traces of adenovirus have been detected in about half of European cases and less frequently outside the Old Continent; SarsCov2 was detected in a percentage ranging between 8% and 16% of the samples.
At the moment, the World Health Organization calls for continued surveillance and has decided not to lower the level of risk, which remains set to ‘moderate’, especially in consideration of the uncertainty about the causes of hepatitis and the real extent of the phenomenon. as a result of the weakness of surveillance systems in many parts of the world. (HANDLE).
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