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Hepatitis in children: the new hypothesis

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Hepatitis in children: the new hypothesis

They have reached altitude 232 the cases of acute hepatitis of unknown etiology in children across Europe. This was reported by the ECDC, the European center for the prevention and control of diseases, in the report published over the weekend. Patients have for the most part (more than three quarters, 75.9%) less than 5 years. Only three would be epidemiologically linked, and would therefore have contracted the disease in similar circumstances.

Acute hepatitis in children: where do patients come from and how they are now

The reports come from 14 Villages.

  • 131 from the United Kingdom.
  • 26 from Spain.
  • 24 from Italy (we talked about the first cases in our country here).
  • 12 from Belgium
  • 9 from Sweden.
  • 6 from Denmark.
  • 6 from Ireland.
  • 6 from the Netherlands.
  • 5 from Norway.
  • 2 from Cyprus.
  • 2 from Greece.
  • 1 from Poland.
  • 1 from Serbia.
  • 1 from Slovenia.

At least 122 children are healed, while 18 are still undergoing medical treatment. Medical records of 143 cases were made available. We know that 22 patients, or 15.4%, were hospitalized in therapy intensive and at least 6 have received a liver transplantation. A baby is died due to the complications of this mysterious pathology.

The good news is that the ECDC has received only one report in the last week. Even if, it is specified in the report published on the website of the institution, severe hepatitis can have particularly slow development times and very long periods can pass from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis. For this the recent decrease in cases “It is difficult to interpret”.

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What is the most likely cause of the mysterious acute hepatitis of children

The real cause is in fact still uncertain. At least 90 children out of the 151 tested foradenovirus with different types of analyzes they tested positive for this pathogen. And the positivity rate was higher in whole blood samples. Alone 20 children out of 173 tested positive for Sars-Cov-2, the coronavirus responsible for Covid. Most of the patients were not vaccinated against the virus.

The ECDC is working closely with theWorld Health Organization e le national health authorities to understand the true origin of this disease that has affected so many children and, as fast as it came, now seems to be almost gone.

Experts have evaluated various hypotheses, but the one that has gradually taken hold, and is therefore considered the most probable, is that of an adenovirus infection occurred in the presence of another factor, which would have made the virus particularly harmful, triggering a immune-mediated liver damage.

In other words, the cause of the mysterious acute hepatitis could have been an excessive response of the immune system of the young patients, triggered by an as yet unknown factor, which made serious a ‘very common infection and generally asymptomatic or with transient and mild manifestations.

However, investigations continue for other causes. For example others agents infectious, viruses, bacteria or fungi, or toxic, both natural and synthetic. From the risk analysis it is unlikely that acute hepatitis will pass from human to human. And also for this reason it is not easy to say whether the European pediatric population is really at risk. Here are the other possible causes.

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We have already told you here about the telltale symptoms of acute hepatitis that has affected children across Europe.

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