“At this time, we believe that adenovirus could be the cause of the reported cases, but other possible environmental and situational factors are still being investigated.”
There are over 50 known adenoviruses, which usually only cause mild illness, in most cases the common cold. Adenovirus 41 can cause gastroenteritis in children, but “it is not usually known to cause hepatitis in otherwise healthy children,” the CDC said.
An investigation of the cases in Alabama has therefore ruled out other possibilities such as Covid, hepatitis viruses A, B and C or Wilson’s disease as causes. The children, aged one to six years, suffered from abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and jaundice. Three of them suffered acute liver failure and two required liver transplantation.
Since the end of March, several countries had reported such unexplained cases of hepatitis in children. The first cases appeared in the UK, with others in other European countries, Israel and Japan. Two cases became known in Austria. The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far counted 170 cases in eleven countries. In the US state of Wisconsin, where four cases were also recorded, a child died as a result. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver that rarely occurs in healthy children.
The EU health authority ECDC was also concerned about the unexplained cases of illness on Thursday. The EU authority had also assumed a possible connection with adenoviruses as a “working hypothesis”.
Source: Nachrichten
