UK hepatitis outbreak: How worried should we be about mysterious virus causing liver disease to children? –

UK hepatitis outbreak: How worried should we be about mysterious virus causing liver disease to children?  –

Few parents cared about reports of hundreds of children hospitalized for hepatic hepatitis.

While many recovered, 11 required emergency liver transplants.

Most cases have occurred in the UK, but children are currently affected in the US, Japan and Israel.

According to the World Health Organization, a child has died — which country has not disclosed — while US health officials are investigating the death of another teenager with suspected hepatitis.

Hepatitis is the term used to describe inflammation of the liver, an organ that helps filter toxins from the body.

It usually causes only mild flu-like symptoms, but it can also lead to more serious problems such as jaundice, swelling of the legs, ankles and feet, blood in the stool and vomiting.

According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), all 145 cases identified so far in the UK’s most recent hepatitis outbreak were under the age of 16, with the vast majority under the age of 5. (Image file)

In its most extreme form, hepatitis can cause the liver to stop working, and patients may need a transplant to survive.

The five viruses that cause it are known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E.

Depending on the virus, they are transmitted in different ways, such as contaminated blood, feces or undercooked meat.

Hepatitis can also be caused by toxins such as those found in industrial chemicals, drugs and most commonly alcohol.

While it’s not clear what’s causing these cases of childhood hepatitis, and theories circulate to blame everything from blockages to latent viruses, we asked scientists the appropriate questions about this mysterious outbreak.

What do we know so far about affected children?

The results do not fit the typical patient profile.

According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), all 145 cases detected in the UK’s most recent outbreak to date were under the age of 16, with the vast majority under the age of 5.

Experts say this is surprising, given that young children are often not severely affected by common causes of hepatitis.

“Hepatitis viruses usually ingest babies without causing much harm,” said Professor Will Irving, a virologist at the University of Nottingham. ‘Adults are much more likely to get seriously ill.

“And of course we can ignore alcohol as a factor.”

Research conducted by UKHSA found no toxins in the blood or urine of the children, invalidating theories of food contamination.

Scientists say hospitals see a small number of children suffer from severe hepatitis for no apparent reason each year. But these numbers pale in comparison to this latest increase.

Any theory as to the reason for all this?

The scientists found one common trait: More than three-quarters of cases tested positive for a pathogen called adenovirus 41F.

Adenoviruses are a group of about 80 viruses that usually infect the upper respiratory tract and cause cough, runny nose or pneumonia.

They can sometimes infect the intestines and cause severe abdominal pain, but adenoviruses that reach the liver are almost unknown.

There does not seem to be a clear link between the cases.

Except for two children in Wales, none of the patients scattered across the UK seem to have been contacted or have a personal connection.

Scientists say this shows that if an adenovirus is the cause, it won’t spread from person to person.

But they also say that given the number of patients who appear to be carriers of the pathogen, it is very likely that adenovirus 41F is somehow linked to the outbreak.

“The only notable consistency we’ve found so far in these cases is an adenovirus infection,” said Professor Alasdair Munro, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Southampton University Hospital.

Could there be a link to previous Covid infections?

Experts believe that Covid may also be linked to the phenomenon, but the exact nature of this link is not yet clear.

According to UKHSA, 16% of children admitted to hospital with severe hepatitis tested positive for Covid.

But scientists say it’s predictable and not necessarily related to liver inflammation.

“If you take 100 children, you will inevitably see a level of Covid infection like this,” said Professor Simon Taylor-Robinson, a liver specialist at Imperial College London.

“That doesn’t mean hepatitis is the cause.”

However, experts think that a previous Covid infection along with an adenovirus infection can cause liver inflammation.

Hepatitis can also result from an autoimmune reaction when the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells.

This can often happen after a viral infection.

While the UKHSA is still assessing how many children have been previously infected with Covid, scientists say nearly all children are likely to have the virus at some point.

Experts say a previous Covid infection may cause children’s immune systems to respond differently to an adenovirus infection.

“It is possible that there is a viral interaction with Covid and adenovirus that causes the immune system to react in unexpected ways,” says Prof. munro

Is this a domino effect of isolation in quarantine?

It is true that social contacts are severely limited during the Covid quarantine and therefore fewer viruses are transmitted.

According to the UKHSA, reported cases of colds, flu and other common viruses fell to almost zero in the first year of the pandemic. As a result, many children only now acquire viruses that they would normally get when they were infants.

But experts are split on whether that’s the reason here.

Professor Alastair Sutcliffe, pediatrician at University College London, says: “A lack of immunity to adenoviruses could mean that these infections lead to serious reactions that we have never seen before.”

Others point out that UKHSA data show that although transmission of many diseases was interrupted by the blockade, adenovirus levels remained relatively stable over the period.

“Theories that this is about the blockade are purely speculative and very poorly defined,” said Professor Adam Finn, a pediatrician at the University of Bristol.

Could this be caused by the Covid vaccines?

Experts say one thing is for sure: Hepatitis cases have nothing to do with Covid vaccines, as none of the children hospitalized were vaccinated.

This is because most of them are under the age of five and therefore not eligible for the Covid vaccine.

Also, of the Covid vaccines used in the UK, only the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine uses an adenovirus, and numerous studies confirm that the pathogen in the vaccine is inactive, meaning it cannot infect the body.

There’s a more intriguing theory that the cases could be caused by a virus they couldn’t identify, scientists say.

“There is a long-held belief that there is a sixth hepatitis virus that causes these occasional unexplained severe cases in children,” says Prof. Irving.

In addition to all the other diseases that have increased since we came out of quarantine, it is possible that this mysterious hepatitis is also on the rise.

“Fortunately, we now have genetic testing technology to detect such diseases that we didn’t have a few years ago, so if that’s the cause, research over the coming weeks and months will find it.”

So how much should we care about it?

Doctors say the likelihood of a child getting this condition is insignificant. Currently, the UK is receiving an average of one or two new cases a day and there are no signs that this number is increasing.

Of the more than 100 children hospitalized with the condition in the UK, more than 50 make a full recovery, while just under 40 are hospitalized.

At the time of this writing, 11 children have had liver transplants in the UK and none have died.

prof. “While it is a terrifying experience for any parent to see their child in need of a transplant, fortunately it only happens in a very small number of patients,” Irving says.

Source: Daily Mail

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