MILAN. In Lombardy, two cases of children hospitalized with hepatitis of unknown etiology have been reported. This was communicated by the Welfare Directorate General of the Lombardy Region which forwarded the news to the Ministry of Health. They are currently hospitalized in a specialized facility for these pediatric cases and are under observation. For now they are not in danger of life.
The cases were reported after several pediatric patients with acute hepatitis of unknown cause were reported in Europe, particularly in the UK, mainly in children under the age of 10. “Following these reports – explains in a video the Director General of Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Giovanni Rezza – also in Italy the Ministry of Health has been promptly activated since April 14 to inform and constantly update the Regions and also stimulate them to report any suspected cases according to the criteria of the World Health Organization. There have been reports and these are being investigated in a very thorough manner “. In particular, the case of a child from Prato, admitted to the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome with hepatitis of unknown origin, seems to recall that found in other European countries, particularly in the United Kingdom. His situation is at the moment “stable and under control” they let the hospital know and “there is no indication for a transplant. The first virological tests for adenovirus are also negative “. The episode of acute hepatitis remains “of a nature to be defined, as several happen every year”.
The Spallanzani Institute in Rome, after having specified the need to keep the cases reported by various European countries under due attention, reiterated that these must not be sources of alarmism. The Institute announces in a note that it has “promptly activated, through the Regional Service for the Surveillance of Infectious Diseases (Seresmi), a flow of reporting and monitoring of any suspicious cases on the regional territory and is ready to guarantee the necessary insights also through innovative diagnostic techniques such as metagenomics, in order to be able to identify the possible etiological agent “.