Seven more possible hepatitis cases probed

SEVEN more possible cases of unexplained hepatitis in young children are being examined after an outbreak has left one child dead with six confirmed instances.

As well as the child that died, another has had a liver transplant after being admitted to hospital with an acute form of hepatitis.

At least 176 people have experienced sudden onset hepatitis in the UK, of which 128 are in England, 26 in Scotland, 13 in Wales and nine in the North.

Professor Sam McConkey, Head of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, said social distancing may have played a part.

Speaking on Newstalk, Prof McConkey said: ‘We’ve all been, sort of, not physically interacting with as many people for the last couple of years. So little children haven’t been getting their usual childhood exanthems, their fevers, and snotty noses that children normally get in the first couple of years of life.

‘Those normal things have been deferred potentially for a year or two because of the social distancing that we’ve all suffered.’

Prof McConkey said there are three possible reasons for the outbreak.

‘It’ll probably be one of these three: first there’s a toxin that could be in the environment from chemicals that we’re exposed to – or in our food chains, which are very international as we all know.

‘The second interesting possibility is that it could be a new virus – and we’re all, of course, familiar with SARS-CoV-2 that didn’t exist two or three years ago.

‘So this could be a new virus: people are looking for ‘Hepatitis H’ virus – we have A, B, C, D, E - and there is a ‘G’. So a new type of virus that could cause it. So far, nothing’s come up on that.’

He added that the third possibility could be ‘a new manifestation, a new presentation, of an old virus’.

Meanwhile, experts investigating sudden onset hepatitis cases in children have ruled out a link with dogs.

Calum Semple, professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, told a briefing that investigations had found no role for either owning dogs or recent contact with dogs in cases of acute hepatitis.

Experts said no cause of the hepatitis had yet been found. Meanwhile, the HSE has issued guidance on how to recognise signs of monkey pox, after is was identified in the UK, US and European countries. There are no known cases in Ireland.

The HSE said initial symptoms include severe headaches, fever, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes, followed by a rash.