Table of contents:

Mysterious hepatitis in children
Hepatitis
Superantigen - a culprit?
Disturbing symptoms - what to look out for

According to the European Centre for Disease Control, it has announced an intensive collaboration with the WHO (World Health Organisation) to monitor cases of hepatitis of unknown aetiology in children under five years of age.

Mysterious hepatitis in children

Young patients with hepatitis of unknown aetiology have started to appear in paediatric wards around the world. At the moment, around 450 cases have been diagnosed worldwide, with more than two hundred cases across Europe. The first reports of mysterious hepatitis began to arrive from the UK. Gradually, other countries began to signal the appearance of cases of the disease on their territory.

Hepatitis

Hepatitisis not a disease that only affects adults. Children also contract this disease entity. Everyone has heard of VH A or HCV. Viral hepatitis is an infectious disease caused by hepatotropic viruses that progressively damage the liver. In the children diagnosed with the hepatitis described above, the viruses responsible for causing the known types of VH have not been isolated from the bloodstream. It is this that has raised doctors' concerns - the unknown aetiology of the disease, or unknown cause, is a problem that more medics are beginning to face.

In most cases, patients diagnosed with the disease were not diagnosed with other chronic conditions that could cause hepatitis. Another theory of the emergence of hepatitis of unknown aetiology that circulated the web was... the effect of vaccination on COVID. This theory was quickly debunked because hepatitis was diagnosed in children < 5 years of age, and these children were not yet included in the vaccination programme for COVID. Another theory that finds many supporters is adenovirus (type 41F) infection. Adenoviruses most often cause gastrointestinal problems, manifested by diarrhoea, vomiting. Children admitted to hospital because of adenovirus infection have ended up in paediatric wards primarily because of dehydration, so it is difficult to prove the effect of adenoviruses on the liver, even though some disease symptoms are common (abdominal pain, vomiting, high temperature, diarrhoea).

Superantigen - a culprit?

COVID-19 and adenoviruses, however, were the signal for scientists to check for a connection between these two seemingly unrelated viruses. As shown in a paper published in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the SARS-Covid-2 virus does not directly affect the possibility of causing hepatitis, but may have an indirect effect. How? All indications are that coronavirus particles can interact with the immune system from the gastrointestinal tract and this in turn stimulates the body to over- and under-react to the adenovirus. It should be recalled that it is the gastrointestinal tract that plays a huge and important role in the proper functioning of the immune system, as the so-called GALT. Due to an over-reaction to the adenovirus, the body starts to produce inflammatory proteins and these - damage the liver.

Worrying symptoms - what to look out for

Symptoms of hepatitis in a child can resemble the common 'gut infection' and includes symptoms such as:

Nausea
Diarrhoea
Loss of appetite
Fever
Fatigue
Weakness
Yellowing of the skin
Yellowing of the eyeballs
Change in colour of urine to intense yellow
Appearance of pale stools

If you notice any alarming symptoms, consult your doctor immediately!

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Mysterious hepatitis in children

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