Mysterious liver disease impact kids worldwide: Here are leading theories. Is there any link to Covid?
Mysterious disease impact kids
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least one child died of the mysterious disease.
An unknown, severe strain of hepatitis has been identified in nearly 170 children across 11 countries in recent weeks.
What did WHO say?
The global health body said that there have been continuing further reports of cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin among young children.
The official report further added that it is not yet clear if there has been an increase in hepatitis cases, or an increase in awareness of hepatitis cases that occur at the expected rate but go undetected.
WHO also noted that adenovirus is a possible hypothesis, probes are ongoing for the causative agent.
Where has it been detected
As per WHO, at least 169 cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin have been reported from 11 countries in the WHO European Region and one country in the WHO Region of the Americas, as of 21 April 2022.
Cases have been reported in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the United Kingdom) (114), Spain (13), Israel (12), the United States of America (9), Denmark (6), Ireland (<5), The Netherlands (4), Italy (4), Norway (2), France (2), Romania (1), and Belgium (1).
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.
She said that such cases are very rare, the Scottish doctors would normally see four to five unknown hepatitis cases in a year.
Who has been affected?
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.
What's causing the sicknesses?
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.
Meera Chand, director of clinical and emerging infections at the UK Health Security Agency 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 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, or related to previous Covid infection, Chand said.
Nineteen of the 169 recorded cases had both Covid and adenovirus, while 20 had just Covid.
All the experts emphasised that ongoing investigations needed more time, but Buti said she expected results within a month.
What can be done?
Maria Buti, a pathologist in Barcelona and chair of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) said that because adenovirus is an infectious disease, Covid measures work well against it - particularly for children regularly cleaning their hands.
She also called on doctors to look out for signs of jaundice.
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