Cases of hepatitis in children seem to have risen in the UK – but not in the US – a finding that could confound theories about a possible link to the pandemic
Credit: Peter Byrne/PA via Alamy
Despite the US results, the CDC continues to explore possible connections to the pandemic. An analysis published on 24 June showed that 26% of 123 children with unexplained hepatitis in the United States had a history of a positive COVID-19 test before their liver illness.
There is also a lack of precedents: adenoviruses are not known to cause hepatitis in children with healthy immune systems. And the levels of virus found in most of the children with liver inflammation are low. “I don’t think it’s adenovirus,” says paediatric hepatologist Orit Waisbourd-Zinman at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva, Israel.. Only one of them, she says, tested positive for adenovirus.
The CDC study, covering 2017–22, questions any explanations that involve the pandemic. The team picked through data from health-care records, organ-transplant records and laboratory testing of stool samples for adenovirus.