• Infectious diseases Adenovirus F41, the main 'suspect' in cases of childhood hepatitis

The Community of Madrid has so far reported the existence of

eight cases of

acute hepatitis

of unknown origin in children, five of them in Madrid, which are currently under investigation.

This was explained by the Minister of Health of the Community of Madrid, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, after participating in the inauguration of the La Paz Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Specifically, the three cases under investigation (one from

Madrid

, another from

Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real)

and another from

Zaragoza

) have been joined by that of an almost four-year-old girl from Madrid treated at the

Gregorio Marañón Hospital

and four other more reported cases in the last few hours

(three from Madrid and a Galician).

In this way, of the eight cases reported in the region, five correspond to Madrid.

The increase in the number of cases under investigation responds, among other issues,

to changes in criteria in the definition

, since the age has been increased to 16 years, among other issues, and it has been recalled that a review is being carried out backwards in time to detect possible candidates to investigate.

In Spain, between January 1, 2022 and April 22, 13 cases of severe hepatitis of unknown origin have been detected in people between 0 and 16 years of age, of which

eight meet the criteria of a confirmed case

to initiate the investigation as established by the United Kingdom, the first country in which cases have occurred, and five cases were classified as probable. According to Escudero, this Thursday he met with officials of the United Kingdom health authorities to address this issue, in a meeting in which he was accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Public Health and the Covid-19 Plan of the Community of Madrid, Antonio Zapatero, and the General Director of Public Health, Elena Andradas.

A "fruitful" meeting in which an attempt was made to delve into how the United Kingdom was dealing with these cases, explained Ruiz Escudero, who stressed that it was agreed to "hold a more fluid meeting to try to learn as much as possible" from this country which concentrates the largest number of cases.

On April 5, 2022, the United Kingdom International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point notified the World Health Organization (WHO)

of 10 cases of severe acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology

in previously healthy children under 10 years of age in the central belt of Scotland.

Nine cases had an onset of symptoms during March 2022 and one had an earlier onset, in January 2022. As of April 20, the UK had recorded 108 confirmed cases: 79 in England, 14 in Scotland, 11 in Wales and 4 in Northern Ireland.

The cases were not related to each other, 55% were girls between 0 and 10 years old (87% between 1 and 5 years old).

In eight of these cases a liver transplant has been necessary and none have died.-

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

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