WHO Announces 650 Cases of Severe Hepatitis in Children for the Last 2 Months

WHO Announces 650 Cases of Severe Hepatitis in Children for the Last 2 Months
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The cases of severe hepatitis that occur in children continue to make the world worry. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that at least 650 such cases have been reported across 33 countries for the last two months, meaning since April.

Other 99 cases are already pending classification. Twenty-two countries from the WHO European Region reported most of the cases. The UK and Northern Ireland alone reported 34% of the severe hepatitis cases – 222 infections, to be more precise. The majority of the European children who became ill were also beneath five years old – 75%, to be more precise. 

No cause discovered so far

Researchers still didn’t find a cause for the mysterious disease. However, they don’t seem to stop looking for answers.

Here’s what else the WHO had to say:

While adenovirus is a plausible hypothesis as part of the pathogenesis mechanism, further investigations are ongoing for the causative agent; adenovirus infection (which generally causes mild self-limiting gastrointestinal or respiratory infections in young children) does not fully explain the more severe clinical picture observed with these cases.

The WHO also informs that nine children have already lost their lives because of the mysterious form of hepatitis, while 38 required a transplant.

Europe is far from being the only continent where cases of the severe form of hepatitis for children were detected. Asia, North and South America, the Western Pacific, and other areas of the globe reported cases as well.

It seems that in this latest group of reported cases, the infections proved to be more severe. More children than usual had to deal with acute liver failure.

The symptoms of the mysterious form of hepatitis that people need to be on the lookout for when it comes to their children include vomiting, loss of appetite, fever, fatigue, dark urine, abdominal pain, jaundice, and more.


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Even since he was a child, Cristian was staring curiously at the stars, wondering about the Universe and our place in it. Today he's seeing his dream come true by writing about the latest news in astronomy. Cristian is also glad to be covering health and other science topics, having significant experience in writing about such fields.

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