Two new possible cases of acute hepatitis in Greece in a 2-year-old and a 13-year-old
Thursday 28 July 2022, 11:37
surpass the thousand cases of acute hepatitis of unknown etiology which have been recorded in recent times internationally with one in four cases – in total more than 25% – involving cases recorded in the United Kingdom.
In Greece we have two new possible cases of acute hepatitis in a two-year-old toddler and a thirteen-year-old teenager with the pediatric hepatologist, assistant professor of King’s College London Tasso Grammatikopoulos to explain to ERT that what is being investigated in each case is more likely for a more difficult case. conservatives with intravenous fluids and a special diet and some antibiotics can be given if there is an infection or if it is an acute liver failure which requires more aggressive treatment and certainly more prolonged hospitalization of the child.
We recall at this point that the main characteristic of acute hepatitis of unknown etiology is that it develops rapidly and causes acute liver failure which is not something expected, with the consequence that 5% of children worldwide need a liver transplant and a smaller percentage of 2% end up because of the disease.
Acute hepatitis has been associated from the beginning with the existence of a common adenovirus adenovirus number 41 which is very common in the human population and infects people very easily two other large studies done in the United Kingdom and with data from England and . data from Scotland shows that in a percentage of 90% of children presented two other viruses were also found, another glandular which is transferred from mother to child and a herpes virus.
This combination seems to play a decisive role in the onset of the disease in combination with the fact that in these children their immune systems did not have time to mature due to the restrictions of the pandemic measures and the change that their daily life underwent. The coronavirus itself does not seem to play a role, i.e. the acute hepatitis is not a delayed complication of the Covid infection as only 10% of the children were found to be positive for the coronavirus, but it is not so much the infection itself as the huge change that everyday life has undergone several million children in the world because of the coronavirus.
For children because nurseries and schools were closed and families restricted them as children are especially vulnerable to ideas and exile infections when they are very young, they don’t have time to come into contact with their peers they don’t have time to be exposed to the public pathogens that under normal conditions are exposed on an almost daily basis, with scientists expecting big explanations in the fall when kindergartens and nurseries and schools open and probably without a mask after all this two and a half years (and ). wave of the pandemic that made us live differently.