Scientists identify likely cause of mysterious children’s liver disease

More than 1,000 children in 35 countries have developed an unidentified type of severe acute hepatitis — or liver inflammation — since the first case was reported in the January 2022.

According to scientists in the U.K., they have identified the likely cause of a recent outbreak of mysterious liver disease afflicting young children around the world.

According to new research, a lack of exposure to two common viruses may have increased the chances of children becoming seriously ill with acute hepatitis.

Some infants may have missed out on early immunity to both adenoviruses and the newly linked adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2), according to two research teams.

Both teams said there was no evidence of a link between the spike in hepatitis cases and the infections.

Since the first case was reported in January, more than 1000 children in 35 countries have developed a type of severe acute hepatitis.

Most of the cases have been in children less than five years old, but diagnoses have been found in children up to 16 years old.

The most common virus found in samples from affected children was adenoviruses, which can cause mild cold or flu-like symptoms.

The new research showed that adeno-associated virus 2, which normally causes no illness and cannot replicate without a "helper" virus such as adenoviruses, was present in almost all of the cases of unknown hepatitis examined.

The recent outbreak may have been caused by co-infection with the two viruses AAV2 and an adenoviruses.

While we still have some unanswered questions about exactly what led to this spike in acute hepatitis, we hope these results can be reassuring to parents concerned about Covid-19 as neither teams have found any direct link with the disease.

Typically, children gain exposure — and immunity — to adenoviruses and other common illnesses during their early childhood years. However, pandemic restrictions largely limited that early exposure.

Some health experts believe that Covid lock downs have reduced public immunity to a number of common illnesses. There was no correlation between coronaviruses and vaccines.

Both studies were done using U.K. samples. Dr. Morfopoulou said more research was needed to compare their findings with those of other countries.

She said that international collaborations are needed to further investigate and understand the role of AAV2 and co-infecting viruses in children.