Acute hepatitis in children, about twenty probable cases out of at least fifty reports. These are the numbers that Italy has on the table regarding acute hepatitis of unknown origin detected in previously healthy children, on which an alert was triggered in the past few weeks after the United Kingdom had found an anomalous concentration of cases. In our country, however, according to what Adnkronos Health learns, the health authorities are currently not detecting any warning signs. And the same is happening in general in Europe as well: in the Peninsula as in other countries of the Old Continent there does not seem to be a significant increase in these forms, and the numbers of reports from the tricolor structures are not growing dramatically. Reports that continue to be collected and in relation to which, again as we learn, a new circular will soon be published.
“The real increase has been in the United Kingdom, from what has emerged so far, because there has also been an increase in child transplants, which have risen from an average of 2-3 a year to 8 this year – ago note an expert – in the other European countries there does not seem to be a corresponding trend “. It remains to be understood what may have moved these numbers in particular in the UK, what is at the origin of the alarm. The investigation is not only across the Channel and in Europe, but also in the USA, where the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) have examined 109 cases – including 5 deaths – reported in the last 7 months in 25 states, according to the latest update after the national alert. In more than half of the cases – it was explained in a briefing – a positivity to adenovirus was verified, considered the number one suspect in the UK, while 14% of the patients surveyed underwent a transplant.
Even the US agency, however, does not currently detect a significant increase in severe hepatitis in children or transplants compared to before the pandemic. “Surely in England there may be something to investigate”, note the experts who are dealing with the issue in Italy. It is difficult to understand if it is an infectious disease or if there are other causes at the origin. But there appears to have been no further increase in cases in recent weeks.
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