The minor fell ill at the beginning of the year and is already cured, but the Ministry’s health alert center keeps his clinical history under surveillance
The Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (Ccaes) of the Ministry of Health detected a possible case of acute hepatitis of unknown origin in a child in the Region of Murcia. The case is being analyzed as probable, since it does not yet meet the criteria for confirmation. The minor suffered from the disease at the beginning of the year and is now cured, but his case is still under study by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health, for its part, insisted this Sunday that in the Region “there is no confirmed case. The Epidemiology Service, once the WHO alert was published, notified an old case already resolved that is under study. But it has not been confirmed as a case, “they insisted.
The Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies detected eight confirmed cases and five probable cases –among them, the one in Murcia– of severe hepatitis of unknown origin in children under 16 years of age between January 1 and April 22 of this year.
According to the report ‘Alert of severe acute non-AE hepatitis of unknown cause in children under 10 years in the United Kingdom. Situation in Spain’, of the 13 cases detected, eight meet the criteria for a confirmed case to initiate the investigation according to the definition of the United Kingdom, and five were classified as probable. The 8 confirmed cases (3 boys and 5 girls between the ages of 18 months and 7 years) began symptoms between January 2 and March 24, 2022 and have their residence in the Community of Madrid, Catalonia (2 of them ), Galicia (2), Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha and Aragon. There is no relationship between them. Only one of the cases had a history of travel to the United Kingdom and one had a positive test for adenovirus. The evolution has been favorable, except in one case that required a liver transplant.
The 5 probable cases (2 boys, 2 girls and 1 of unknown sex) have their residence in Catalonia (3), Andalusia (1) and the Region of Murcia (1). The World Health Organization (WHO) has already reported the existence of at least 169 cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin in 12 countries, including a minor who would have died due to this disease. The body has released the figures as health authorities around the world investigate a mysterious rise in severe cases of hepatitis (inflammation of the liver) in young children.
The WHO indicates that until April 21, acute cases of hepatitis of unknown origin had been reported in the United Kingdom (114), Spain (13, ranking as the second country with the highest incidence), Israel (12), United States (9) , Denmark (6), Ireland (5), the Netherlands (4), Italy (4), Norway (2), France (2), Romania (1) and Belgium (1).
As for the most common symptoms among patients, acute hepatitis (inflammation of the liver) with markedly elevated liver enzymes has been detected. Many cases report gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting that preceded presentation with severe acute hepatitis and elevated levels of liver enzymes or alanine aminotransaminase and jaundice (yellow eyes). Most of the cases did not have fever. The common viruses that cause acute viral hepatitis (hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E viruses) have not been detected in any of these cases. International travel or links to other countries based on currently available information have not been identified as factors.
adenovirus infections
The WHO explains that the common cold virus – known as adenovirus – has been detected in at least 74 cases and the virus that produces Covid in about 20, although 19 patients with both pathologies have been found. Furthermore, they report that in the UK, where the majority of cases have been reported to date, “a significant increase in community adenovirus infections (particularly detected in faecal samples from children) has recently been observed following low levels of circulation prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.” The same situation is occurring in the Netherlands.
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