Washington:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating 109 cases of a mysterious form of childhood hepatitis, including five reported deaths, the agency said Friday.
“Researchers at home and abroad and around the world are working hard to determine the cause,” said Jay Butler, CDC deputy director of infectious diseases.
Ninety percent of cases involved hospitalization, and 14 percent required liver transplants. The majority made a full recovery.
The CDC issued a health warning last week to notify doctors and public health authorities of similar cases, and began investigating case histories dating back to October 1, 2021.
More than half of the cases tested positive for adenovirus 41 – a virus normally associated with gastroenteritis but not hepatitis in otherwise healthy children.
“Because of the link to the adenovirus, I would like to put that at the top of the list of interesting viruses,” Butler said.
“But we don’t know whether the adenovirus itself is causing the cases, or whether there is an immune response to this particular strain of the adenovirus.”
It also looks at environmental factors, such as the presence of animals in the barn, as well as whether other pathogens, such as Covid, may have played a role.
Adenovirus cases may also recover after Covid lockdowns halted its spread for a few years, or the adenovirus may have evolved into a newer, more dangerous strain.
But the CDC has said it doesn’t believe Covid vaccinations are to blame.
Nine cases in Alabama that were investigated in depth were among children with a median age of two years, too young for Covid vaccination.
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