China News Service, April 20. According to Agence France-Presse, the European Union health agency said on the 19th local time that a case of hepatitis of unknown etiology first detected in children in the United Kingdom has now spread to four other European countries and the United States.
According to reports, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on the 15th local time that it had monitored 84 cases of severe acute hepatitis reported in the United Kingdom since the 5th, and more cases are expected in the next few days.
The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) said on the 19th that children with similar hepatitis have been found in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. health department has found nine cases of this type of hepatitis, all in Alabama, in patients between the ages of 1 and 6, including two children who required liver transplants.
The U.S. health department is investigating whether there are similar cases in other states.
The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said investigations were underway in all countries reporting cases, and the exact cause of hepatitis in these children was not known.
Most of the sick children had no fever, but both the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said some cases in the UK were so severe that six children even had liver transplants.
The report also said that the cases were mainly children under the age of 10, with symptoms including jaundice, diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
Investigators suspect infection is the most likely cause, the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding that there has been no link between childhood hepatitis cases and the Covid-19 vaccine.
The WHO informed that laboratory analysis has ruled out the possibility that these cases were caused by hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E viruses, and new coronavirus or adenovirus was detected in some samples.