WHO looks into COVID-19 link in child hepatitis outbreaks
GENEVA－The WHO said on Tuesday that 348 probable cases of hepatitis of unknown origin had been identified, as studies into the potential roles of adenovirus and COVID-19 infection gather pace.
Nine children in Sweden have fallen ill with suspected acute hepatitis without any apparent cause, said the country's Public Health Agency on Tuesday. Also, seven probable cases of severe acute hepatitis have been reported over six months at one of Canada's major children's hospitals, local media reported.
The World Health Organization said the leading hypotheses remain those involving adenovirus.
Cases have been reported in 20 countries, with 70 additional cases from a further 13 countries which are pending classification as tests await completion.
"Over the last week, there's been some important progress with the further investigations and some refinements of the working hypotheses," Philippa Easterbrook, from the WHO's global hepatitis program, told a news conference.
"The big focus over the next week is looking at serological testing for previous exposure and infections with COVID," Easterbrook said.
So far, laboratory tests exclude cases of known viral hepatitis. In many cases, adenovirus infection was detected in the affected children, and the link between the two is being investigated as one of the hypotheses for the underlying cause.
Jay Butler, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's deputy director for infectious diseases, said some of the common causes of viral hepatitis had been considered, but were not found in any of the cases.
As for concerns about whether the acute hepatitis cases could be linked to COVID-19 or its vaccines, the WHO and some countries have a preliminary conclusion, and the answer is no.
The WHO is working with countries and partners to look at a range of possible explanatory factors. The priority is to determine the cause of illness to be able to further refine control and preventive actions, it said.
Agencies - Xinhua
