New cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin in children have been reported in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain. The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention Ecdc reports this in a note, after the reports of the United Kingdom Health Safety Agency in recent days.
Another nine cases of acute hepatitis among children between the ages of 1 and 6, the ECDC then warns, have been reported in the state of Alabama in the United States, with the children also testing positive for adenovirus.
At present, the exact cause of hepatitis in these children remains unknown and the ECDC therefore reports that it is working with teams in each of the reporting countries, along with WHO and other key partners to support ongoing investigations. .
The increase in acute hepatitis cases of unknown etiology among previously healthy children under the age of 10 from Scotland was reported on 5 April in the UK. The country then reported on 12 April that in addition to those in Scotland, there were around 61 additional cases under investigation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with most of these cases between the ages of 2 and 5. On 14 April, Scotland reported that of the 13 investigated cases, two case pairs were epidemiologically linked.
The ECDC adds that at the moment an infectious etiology is considered to be the most probable, even if cases of viral hepatitis types A, B, C, D and E were excluded from the examinations.
(Unioneonline / vl)
