• Epidemiology No, cases of childhood hepatitis are not due to Covid vaccines

  • Pediatrics The strange cases of childhood hepatitis that have been detected in Spain: symptoms and possible causes

The European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) has confirmed the diagnosis of new cases of hepatitis of unknown origin in children in

Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands

.

Although the European body has not detailed the number of new cases, these cases join the 74 previously detected in the United Kingdom and the 3 diagnosed in Spain.

On the other hand, the ECDC also reports the detection of nine cases of these hepatitis in nine children between

1 and 6 years of age in Alabama

(USA), who also tested positive for adenovirus.

Although the causes that cause these severe inflammation of the liver are still being investigated, the hypothesis that the origin is in an infection is the one that has more weight.

Adenoviruses are one of the possible causative agents that have been reported in recent days.

Experts are certain that the cause of the disease is not related to the Covid-19 vaccine, since none of those affected in the United Kingdom had received this immunization.

"The infectious aetiology is currently considered the most likely given the clinical and epidemiological characteristics,"

the specialists who are studying the 13 cases detected so far in Scotland, led by Kimberly Marsh and Nick Phin, of the Scottish Service , have pointed out in the journal

Eurosurveillance

. of Public Health.

Laboratory tests have excluded that the cases are due to hepatitis A, B, C, D and E viruses

, which usually cause this rare condition in children.

It was the United Kingdom that sounded the alarm on April 5 by reporting an increase in the number of cases of childhood hepatitis of unknown origin in Scotland.

The Scottish cases were joined in the following days by dozens of cases diagnosed in England and also in Wales.

Most of those affected are between 2 and 5 years old, although the disease has also been detected in younger and older children.

The little ones presented symptoms of severe hepatitis, with a great elevation in their transaminase levels (more than 500 IU/L) and jaundice.

Some of those affected had manifested gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting in the preceding days.

Most of the cases did not present fever.

The ECDC points out, without specifying the number, that several affected have had to undergo a liver transplant.

.

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  • AIDS and hepatitis