Public health authorities in Tarrant County reported a severe case of pediatric hepatitis of unknown origin on May 26.
The child received treatment at a hospital and was subsequently released.
Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. It is usually caused by viruses, titularly referred to as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E.
This case of unexplained pediatric hepatitis in Tarrant County is just the latest in as many as 180 instances in 36 U.S. states and territories being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Severe hepatitis in children is rare, which makes the current outbreak alarming.
On Friday, May 27, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 650 probable cases of “acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in children.” The cases are spread out among 33 countries and were reported between April 5 and May 26.
The documented cases are “more clinically severe,” and a significant number of those afflicted develop acute liver failure, with upwards of 12% requiring liver transplants, according to the WHO.
Having ruled out the more common viruses known to cause hepatitis, researchers and public health officials are zeroing in on adenovirus 41.
Medical professionals associate adenovirus 41 with symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting, which has been reported by many of the kids in the WHO’s data before they developed jaundice and liver failure.
Researchers are puzzled because adenovirus 41 causes gastrointestinal and respiratory illness in children and, up until now, has no known association with liver inflammation. However, a UK study found that 75% of its sample tested positive for adenovirus. More than half of the sample was infected with adenovirus 41 specifically.
The majority of unexplained severe hepatitis cases in children in the UK are under age 5 and unvaccinated for COVID-19. This has prompted some researchers to investigate the possibility of co-infections driving these cases.
While 75% of the afflicted UK children sampled in the study tested positive for adenovirus, 16% tested positive for COVID-19, according to the UK Health Security Agency. Additionally, the sample had “a high background rate of COVID-19 during the investigation period [between January and April].”
