17 Additional Children Confirmed With Acute Hepatitis of Unknown Etiology

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed forty-two states had received 355 reports of unexplained pediatric hepatitis cases under investigation.

As of July 20, 2022, the CDC reported that 17 additional children had been confirmed since last week.

Among the reported PUIs, about 90% required hospitalization, 6% needed a liver transplant, and 11 died.

In addition, preliminary reports indicated that among PUIs receiving adenovirus testing, about 44% were positive.

As of July 8, 2022, 35 countries had reported 1,010 probable cases of severe acute hepatitis of unknown etiology in children, including 22 deaths, which fulfill the WHO case definition.

Based on the WHO's working case definition for probable cases, laboratory testing has excluded hepatitis A-E viruses in these children.

However, pathogens like adenovirus and SARS-CoV-2 were detected by PCR in a number of the cases, although the data reported to the WHO is incomplete.

In Japan, SARS-CoV-2 was also detected in 8% of cases (5/59) with available results.

Furthermore, epidemiologically linked cases have been reported in Scotland and the Netherlands.

These figures may change as new data becomes available, says the WHO.

Additional acute hepatitis cases in children's news are posted at PrecisionVaccinations.com/Acute.

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