While the international scientific community is still trying find the cause that has caused that in the middle of this month WHO notified the appearance of an outbreak of acute hepatitis of unknown origin in young healthy children, experts consulted in the Balearic Islands point to vomiting, “an important picture that lasts for more than 48 hours and in which the affected person does not tolerate anything”, as one of the symptoms that parents should be concerned about.
Although no cases of these acute childhood hepatitis have been reported in the Balearic Islands, the health services are vigilant against the possibility of any arising, since viral hepatitis is a notifiable disease.
From mid-April to this part, the number of cases of acute childhood hepatitis have increased at a very high rate. As of April 21, at least 169 cases had been reported in 12 countries. And Spain, with thirteen cases, is the second country on the planet with higher incidence after United Kingdom (114).
Regarding the geographical distribution of the cases in this country, Catalonia, with five episodes, is the community with the highest incidence followed by Andalusia and Galicia, with two cases in each region, while Aragon, Castilla La Mancha, Madrid and Murcia have been diagnosed with one of these hepatitis of unknown etiology.
Pediatrician Antonio Rosell coordinates the gastroenterology, hepatology and pediatric nutrition unit at Son Espases and stresses that “We are aware, vigilant, although at the moment we have not had any cases. These acute and serious hepatitis in children are very rare. We will have at most one case every one or two years.”
The expert recalls that approximately 10% of affected children have required a liver transplantone of them one of the thirteen affected in this country, which gives an idea of the seriousness of this hepatitis of unknown origin.
“It is thought that it may be an adenovirus, a common agent in respiratory infections and that we also find in the feces but that it does not occur with such severity,” Rosell shuffles noting that in the cases under study the presence of any of the viruses that cause hepatitis A, B, C, D or E has not been found.
Another of the symptoms of hepatitis that you have to be alert to is jaundice. (when the skin or the white part of the eyes, the sclera, turns yellow), symptom that something is wrong in the liver of the person who suffers from it.Dark urine and white stools
Jaume Giménez, an epidemiological technician from the General Directorate of Public Health, emphasizes that cases of acute hepatitis detected in children are not caused by known viruses, sowith all the hypotheses still open, does not rule out that it is a newly minted pathogen like SARS that has brought the world upside down in the last two years.
“Adenoviruses suspected that may be behind it form a very large group and despite the fact that these pathogens have been found in some of the affected children It could be a mere coincidence because adenoviruses do not cause hepatitis,” says the epidemiologist.
Unrelated to SARS-CoV-2
Neither does Giménez believe that these unusual cases of hepatitis have any relationship with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has generated the disease already universally known as covid-19.
“The vaccines that were dosed mainly in the United Kingdom where the first cases have been reported contained adenovirus but none of those affected had been inoculated “reveals the head of Public Health.
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Another of the hypotheses that are being considered is that all the affected children may have consumed some toxin, some chemical substance used as a preservative in products of habitual consumption among the smallest.Gimenez points out that You have to stay alert and go to the doctor in case your child suffers from gastroenteritis, nausea and vomiting that lasts more than 48 hours and raises fears for proper body hydration as well as the presence of “dark urine and white poop. Bilirubin builds up in the blood and the kidney has to work harder because the liver is affected,” he explains.
Giménez concludes by revealing that despite the seriousness of these hepatitis it has caused some of those affected to have required a liver transplant, for a child’s liver to regenerate just one lobe of a compatible organ that is usually found in a relative of the affected .