Hepatitis outbreak in children

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I'm currently really quite unwell with Covid and not sleeping very well so please be gentle, but is anyone else really worried about the reports of this hepatitis outbreak in children now being monitored by the WHO? It seems to have gained traction over the last few days and lots of reports coming out about it now. I know very little about hepatitis but I know its quite rare to see such severe cases in children. Could Covid be the cause? I'm just feeling really quite worried about it and so sad for these poor children and their families, how horrendous after we've all just come through a pandemic .

This is the leading hypothesis, particularly with it being associated with a "normal" virus and the age of the children being affected having been around the toddler stage of life when their immune systems would normally be fending off constant respiritory bugs and learning how to respond to the load normal interactions. But this cohort got lockdowns, reduced interactions and social distancing and their immune systems were unutilised for so long.

Other infections such as RSV have been disturbed in their seasonal patterns and had higher than average surges in hospitalisations, again repeated in other countries at conparable times.

Severe social restrictions from March 2020 were a comparable global constant although the continuation of various measures did vary after a few months as have case rates.

Coincidentally, possibly, my daughter also got hepatitis about a year ago when she had Covid.
She was 22, not a child, but GP said it was because of the virus.

@FlipFlopsMakeMyToesCold whats the link to itchiness?

I’m watching this closely because something feels very off with this in my opinion. My initial gut reaction and thought process immediately links it to Covid this it is either another strain or the after effects of having been previously exposed to the virus. It’s not a good development that’s for sure.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday there have been at least 169 reported cases among children across 12 countries.

The United Kingdom had the most infections with 114 cases. Spain reported 13 cases, with Israel and the United States reporting 12 and nine respectively. Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, France, Romania and Belgium also had cases.

WHO reported that all reported cases occurred in children as young as one month old and up to 16 years old. Seventeen of the children infected were required to have a liver transplant.

www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/child-dead-17-liver-transplants-after-mystery-hepatitis-outbreak/news-story/6137e332574ae5020551dc8012b94596

Seems like a lot of unknowns at this stage.

@JingsMahBucket itching is a symptom of liver failure and hepatitis causes liver failure

It’s interesting the us has less cases than the U.K. for being so big - my youngest was vaccinated there and hepatitis is in the vaccine schedule, U.K. it is not

I don’t think it’s to do with lockdowns.

Hepatitis due to viruses that can be vaccinated for have been ruled out. This is almost certainly caused by adenovirus - there are no vaccines.

Place marking as watching option does not work.

It’s a big worry, my mum knows someone who has it. Well actually his grandma.

He is 3, in hospital. He got it about 3 weeks ago, was absolutely fine one day and the next jaundice. They took him to a&e and he was admitted straight away, later that day they said to prepare for the worst. He is still very poorly.

A few of the kids he goes to nursery with came down with it within days after

I wouldn’t be shocked if it is covid related. I think though if it is, it’s likely that just so so many have it that the rare complications become more common as such. I think with so many scientists working on it they will figure it out soon. As someone with two under two I'm unsettled myself. Even if it is a rare thing, you don’t want your child to be the unlucky one.

If lockdowns were the issue, then you’d expect the US and other countries to be worse affected than the U.K. Whilst the U.K. did have 2 periods where schools were shut it has had almost no effective mitigations in schools other than 1 short period where masks were required everywhere in secondary schools. Primary and nursery schools have had virtually nothing. The US and other countries meanwhile have had social distancing, and mask requirements in children over 6 and in many cases in the us home schooling or part time schooling went on for months. And given that the U.K. wasn’t testing for cold/flu symptoms from 2020 like other countries there was plenty of rhinovirus doing the rounds alongside a lot of Covid.
I think anybody who went into a U.K. school or who posted a thread on here about how they have to keep testing their child because of the constant round of temps/runny noses etc they have would dispute that children in the U.K. have been protected from many respiratory viruses.
it’s an interesting theory but not a leading one as far as I can see and not hugely plausible.

I could be wrong about the RSV, but I am fairly certain this was misreported by the media. It was out of season and caused a surge of admissions at a time when you wouldn’t expect them, but it wasn’t much beyond what would have been expected in a typical winter especially given that 2 cohorts of children got their first exposure to RSV at the same time.

Expert on BBC radio 5 saying likely due to children not being exposed to usual viruses in formative years. So birth - 2 when they build up immunity - due to lockdown. Not school age children. Though that doesn’t explain differences in countries yet. Unless this problem grows unfortunately. It’s the leading theory but can’t be proven yet I guess.

I firmly believe it is due to lockdown and we have done our children far more harm than good and we’re only just starting to see the effects of this now. And will for years. Especially on their immune systems physical and social development.

It’s very worrying and far more of a concern to children than Covid ever was.

A few kids from the same nursery?? How bizarre. If true that doesn’t indicate a rare side effect of a common virus, it would be too much of a coincidence surely?

Who was the expert and is there somewhere official that says this is the leading theory.

So far what I’ve found is headlines that don’t quite match the body of articles Wichita quote what the head of UKHSA is reported to have said yesterday. As far as I can tell adenovirus + co-factors is the leading theory. Which means they’ve likely ruled out a genetic change adenovirus 41 but multiple possible co factors are mentioned by experts without identifying any particular 1 as the leading one.

I think the worry @Organictangerine is that is was a rare side effect, but because of the difference in exposure for children in the last two years it's suddenly less rare, so can occur in cohorts/clusters. That group of children were all unusually protected from common viruses for a period of time, then exposed together. It's not unreasonable that they'd react similarly.

Most news sources are going with the view that it is down to lack of exposure to usual viruses in the early years due to lockdown. A quick Google will show this. Not just the dodgy news sites either.

Expert doctor on 5 Live was the famous one with red hair, I recognised her voice but didn’t get her name. She’s a doctor. But I guess Mumsnetters always know better.

It’s just not been proven yet.

Most headlines are, because that what gets the clicks. If you read all the articles they are considerably more balanced and don’t say this is the leading reason even in the telegraph and Mail. Probably because the journalist who wrote the article was the person wrote the headline.

What I’m more interested in is what Margaret Chand actually said at the European conference she was speaking at yesterday which has triggered today’s spate of articles. As far as I can tell from all sorts of news articles it doesn’t seem to have been ‘lockdowns are our leading hypothesis.’

was NOT the person who wrote the headline.

It’s the most likely cause. As is being reported across the board. Children haven’t been exposed to all the viruses they normally would have in the most important years of their lives, when they are building their immunity. That’s bound to have a huge impact.

I mean I’m sure we all know more than a Hepatologist at Imperial college London. It’s only his job. I’m sure many more experts in the field like him will come out with their views too.

I’ll be listening to them, not randoms on Mumsnet. Unless you’re a Hepatologist??

I mean I’m sure we all know more than a Hepatologist at Imperial college London. It’s only his job. I’m sure many more experts in the field like him will come out with their views too.

I’ll be listening to them, not randoms on Mumsnet. Unless you’re a Hepatologist??

I mean I’m sure we all know more than a Hepatologist at Imperial college London. It’s only his job. I’m sure many more experts in the field like him will come out with their views too.

I’ll be listening to them, not randoms on Mumsnet. Unless you’re a Hepatologist??

Sorry for multiple posts. Mumsnet server being funny

I did wonder about the impact of lockdown on babies/very young children’s immune systems, I believe you can also be more vulnerable to other illnesses if certain common infections are not caught in the first couple of years of life. Seems like catching bugs and germs in the early years is very important to building the immune system.