Five children have died in the unexplained hepatitis outbreak and more than 100 cases have been spotted leading to 15 liver transplants, the CDC revealed today.
Jay Butler, deputy director of infectious diseases at the Agency, revealed the shocking results on Friday. She said all children under 10 had died since October.
He said that more than 9 out 10 patients were hospitalized. All of them had previous been in good health and didn’t have any other underlying medical conditions. This disease was reported in 23 states and Puerto Rico.
It is not clear what is triggering the spate of illnesses, but CDC chiefs are now probing whether exposure to animals — including pet dogs — could be behind the cases.
Health chiefs in the UK — which has recorded more than 160 cases — said earlier today they were also looking into a link with canines after finding a ‘high’ number of children with hepatitis lived in families that had pet dogs or were exposed to the animals. The link could be possible, officials cautioned. This is despite the fact that dog ownership in the UK is very common.
The leading hypothesis is that adenoviruses — which can cause the common cold — are behind the illnesses across the country, with the majority of cases in the U.S. testing positive for this.
Butler claimed that the CDC kept an ‘open-mind” and was also investigating whether a Covid infection was a previous one or if it was due to lockdowns. There has not been a link between Covid vaccines and the majority of patients who aren’t eligible for them.
The hepatitis virus has now claimed the lives of at least eight children worldwide. There are also three Indonesian cases being examined. More than 300 people are currently infected worldwide. The majority of these cases have been reported to the US and UK due to improved surveillance.
A total of 24 states and Puerto Rico have recorded cases of the mysterious hepatitis, the CDC revealed today. These cases are highlighted above. Although it is unclear what caused the epidemic, scientists continue to investigate whether pets dogs or other animals may have been exposed.
Dr Jay Butler, the agency’s deputy director for infectious diseases, (pictured at a CDC briefing) revealed the grim tally at a conference today. This brings the total global death toll up to eight, and three more are under investigation in Indonesia.
According to health chiefs, a significant number of children who become sick when they are 10 or under come from families that have dogs or had exposure to dogs in the UK.
The CDC chiefs didn’t reveal the location in which the deaths due to hepatitis occurred in the United States, however one death has been reported in Wisconsin by state health chiefs.
Following a nationwide warning, which advised doctors to watch out for the disease in their area, the CDC received reports of hepatitis cases.
The cause of this strange occurrence is still unknown to health officials. None of the American cases were positive for the common hepatitis A and B, C, D, or E viruses.
Butler reported that there had been 109 cases so far of mysterious liver disease. He also said the children weren’t suffering from an underlying illness and were in good health. The majority of children had “recovered completely” from the illness.
According to him, cases have been reported in these states: Alabama. Arizona. California. Colorado. Delaware. Florida. Georgia. Idaho. Illinois. Indiana. Louisiana. Minnesota. Missouri. North Carolina. North Dakota. Nebraska. New York. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Tennessee. Washington.
According to the CDC, Puerto Rico has also reported at most one case of hepatitis.
Because of ‘confidentiality concerns’, the agency wouldn’t reveal how many were located in each state.
Alabama was the previous state to have reported nine of the highest number of cases.
Dr. Butler responded to Dr. Butler’s question about whether cases in the U.S. may be connected with pet dogs.
“We are really trying to be broad and open-minded in terms of whether or not the adenovirus might affect innocent people bystanders, or whether cofactors may make the ad more visible in a way we have never seen before.
“It’s challenging, because it’s still very rare.”
When asked what his leading theory behind the trigger of these cases was, he replied: “Because the link to the adenovirus would I call that the top of the list virus of interest.”
“But, we are unsure if this is the adenovirus or an immune response to that particular strain or if there may be an infectious factor or co-factor.
“At the moment we have these hypotheses. But I believe we are serious about considering whether this could be something that’s happened at a low-level for many years, and we haven’t documented.
The children did not have a history of previous infections or tests positive for Covid. To determine whether they have had any undiagnosed infections with the virus in the past, surveillance is currently underway.
Dr Umesh parashar from the CDC was also present at the conference and warned of poor surveillance in the U.S. for adenovirus cases.
However, he stated that the virus has not been reported in more people than was expected. The number of confirmed cases is down over the three-year period due to the efforts made to control the spread.
Butler said that liver transplants have not seen a dramatic increase in this country.
Parashar explained that he was looking at the matter in a holistic way.
“If the exposure to the Covid was not previously given, or the host is at risk of being exposed again in the future. Also consider whether the Covid has been subject to mitigations during the last two years. [we will look into it].
“It could also be possible for the virus to change.”
“We won’t know this until some whole genome studies have been completed, and we can compare the strains to the templates of background strains.
“It’s possible that the adenovirus may not be responsible for this outbreak. We are open to considering environmental exposures and other viruses.
The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that it is investigating more than 50 causes for the disease.
Canada, Poland, Japan, Austria and Germany are some of the other countries reporting cases.
Children struck down with the illness generally have fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, light-colored stools, joint pain and jaundice.
The parents were advised to be on the lookout for signs and symptoms. However, the chance of their child contracting the disease was ‘extremely unlikely’.
Up to May 3, 163 suspected cases of hepatitis were confirmed in the UK among people under 10. These cases weren’t caused by the hepatitis A or E viruses. These cases include 118 in England, 23 in Scotland, 13 from Wales, and 10 in Northern Ireland.
The number of confirmed cases in England was 118 as of May 3rd. None of them are related to each other. About 40 cases are still being confirmed in the country (grey bars). Nearly 6 in 10 of these cases concern children under five.
It was revealed in the report that the most prevalent virus found among hepatitis children is still adenovirus. The UKHSA tested blood samples from 126 children with hepatitis. It found that 91 of them (72%) were positive. UKHSA found that some of the negative children had throat and stool tests instead of the gold-standard blood test.
The UK Health Security Agency’s Health Chiefs said that they are investigating the possibility of dogs being responsible for the rash of cases in children with hepatitis.
They trawled through questionnaire responses from affected families and found 70 per cent — 64 of 92 respondents — owned a dog or had been exposed to a dog.
According to the health officials, the discovery may just be chance as dog-ownership is very common in the UK. According to figures, around half of UK adults are pet owners. It is still investigating whether the dog-human connection is significant.
Top experts fear health chiefs won’t understand what’s behind the peculiar pattern — which has been sickened 200 children worldwide since March — for months.