“A suspected case in Rome, treated for a 5-year-old boy”
Two hospitalized in Bergamo, with a child forced to undergo a transplant. A case (the first autochthonous) also recorded in Lazio, at Spallanzani: a 5-year-old child, not vaccinated and not positive for Covid. And the ministry that yesterday issued a circular: hepatitis in children it’s really scary. So much so that the WHO speaks of “increased reports” all over the world, with “one death reported”. In Italy, pediatricians, doctors and hospitals are alerted: all suspected cases must be immediately reported to the Ministry of Health. In the circular, signed by the general director of prevention Giovanni Rezza, the health urgency to keep the phenomenon under control is evident.
It is no coincidence that from April 14 there are six other communications addressed to health facilities, all of the same content. The recommendation of the director general of prevention is clear: it is also necessary to report cases that meet the definition of “case of hepatitis of unknown etiology”, provide for “the conservation of biological samples to allow any other necessary assessment”, and carry out “an epidemiological investigation and laboratory on suspected cases identified “.
The underlying problem is precisely the lack of a known cause. Only some patients, in fact, had in common the positivity to Sars Cov 2. And therefore, writes Rezza, “it is necessary to undertake the characterization of the viruses for possible associations between the cases”.
Acute hepatitis, what are the symptoms. The Ministry: “It can be as contagious as a cold”
THE CAUSES
According to health authorities investigating in the UK, where the majority of hepatitis has occurred, the most likely cause is infectious. Adenovirus could be the culprit, although it usually causes mild diarrhea, with cold-like symptoms, vomiting and diarrhea. However, a double hypothesis emerges: either that a new variant of adenovirus in circulation, that severe hepatitis in children, or that a “variant common in children in circulation, or that a” variant common in children in circulation, affecting mainly children smaller, perhaps immunologically unprotected, in relation to the lower circulation of adenoviruses during the Covid 19 pandemic “.
To identify cases of hepatitis of unknown origin widespread in Italy, the Italian Network of Epidemia Intelligence is already active. The confirmation circular 2 confirmed confirmed cases; 11 reports instead, “which refer to patients identified in various Italian regions (Abruzzo, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Lombardy, Marche, Sicily, Tuscany and Veneto)”. Among these, 2 children are hospitalized at the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo: one is 11 years old, and needed a transplant, and a 6-year-old girl. Another 4 are defined as suspected cases.
In Lazio, the councilor for health Alessio D’Amato said yesterday, “a suspected case of unknown hepatitis may have been identified. But we will want to analyze in depth to define the causes ». The little 5-year-old seems to have no consequences and is at home: he was not vaccinated and was not positive for Covid. Investigations on what appears to be the first suspected autochthonous case of pediatric hepatitis have been launched at the Spallanzani Institute in Rome.
I SYMPTOMS
Meanwhile, the experts reassure. “Parents, explains Massimo Andreoni, director of infectious diseases at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome, must pay attention to the symptoms, that is nausea, vomiting, fever. Before worrying, we must be sure of the causes that can carry out these disorders ».
The virologist Roberto Burioni, invites us to wait for the outlines of the phenomenon to be defined more: «Hepatitis in children in the UK, we know almost nothing – he writes on Twitter -. The only concrete data are the 108 cases in the UK from January to today with 8 liver transplants. They are not few ». The professor at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan reiterates that “none of the 108” children involved in acute hepatitis cases in Great Britain “was vaccinated against Covid, so the vaccine has nothing to do with it”.
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