China News Agency, Seoul, May 11 (Reporter Liu Xu) South Korean health officials said on the 10th local time that South Korea reported its first suspected case of childhood hepatitis with unknown etiology.
The Department of Disease Control under the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea said on the same day that the South Korean epidemic prevention department began to monitor young patients under the age of 16 who sought medical treatment for acute hepatitis since this month. This suspected case was reported on the 1st of this month.
The gender and age of those infected were not released.
Li Sang-won, an official from the Department of Disease Management, said at a regular press conference that at present, it appears that the suspected case of childhood hepatitis of unknown etiology is not closely related to the new coronavirus or the new crown vaccine.
More than 220 cases of acute hepatitis of unknown cause have now been reported worldwide since the UK first reported a case of acute hepatitis of unknown cause on 4 April this year.
The patients ranged in age from 1 month to 16 years. Many patients presented with symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, and most patients had no fever.
Some previous studies have suggested that the above-mentioned childhood hepatitis cases may be associated with adenovirus infection.
However, because many of these cases did not have symptoms typical of adenovirus infection, the exact cause of acute hepatitis in children is still being investigated by the World Health Organization.
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