Tag Archives: HEPITITIS

Sudden Outbreak of Hepatitis in children under five

CDC Investigating 109 Cases of Severe Hepatitis Among Children

FRIDAY, May 6, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Five children have died in a mysterious wave of acute hepatitis that has sickened dozens of children across the United States during the past seven months, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday.

Overall, public health officials have identified 109 children in 25 U.S. states and territories stricken with the liver condition, according to Jay Butler, M.D., the deputy director for infectious diseases at the CDC. Their average age has been 2 years. “More than 90 percent of these patients under investigation were hospitalized, 14 percent received liver transplants, and more than half had a confirmed adenovirus infection,” Butler said during a media briefing on the cases. READ MORE…

 

SARS-CoV-2 could be the cause.

As researchers seek answers to why in recent months more than 500 previously healthy children worldwide developed sudden-onset, severe hepatitis, two leading hypotheses have emerged linking the outbreak to adenovirus and coronavirus.

“Some of us think that the only thing that changed in the last year is COVID-19,” said Dr. Eyal Shteyer, head of the pediatric liver unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where seven children were treated.   READ MORE…