Tag: mysterious diseases

CDC, WHO Probing Mysterious Severe Liver Disease Among Children

Authorities from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating reported cases of severe hepatitis—liver inflammation—in children in Alabama and the United Kingdom.

The Alabama Department of Public Health announced on April 15 that it has been investigating “an increase in hepatitis in young children” since November 2021.

“These children presented to providers in different areas of Alabama with symptoms of a gastrointestinal illness and varying degrees of liver injury including liver failure,” the department said in a release. “Later analyses have revealed a possible association of this hepatitis with Adenovirus 41.”

Adenovirus 41 is normally associated with gut inflammation.

The department said nine children under 10 years of age have been identified as positive for adenovirus as of April 15. Two among them needed liver transplants. The children didn’t have any notable underlying health conditions that would put them at risk for liver illness.

The CDC is developing a national group to look for “clinically similar cases with liver injury of unknown etiology or associated with adenovirus infection” in other U.S. states, and is discussing similar cases of hepatitis with other international health bodies, the department stated.

The WHO separately announced on April 15 that it was notified about 10 cases of severe acute hepatitis in children under 10 in central Scotland on April 5—one child fell ill in January and the nine others in March.

Three days later, the number of such cases in children in the United Kingdom was reported as 74. The U.K. Health Security Agency reported that of the confirmed cases, 49 are in England, 13 are in Scotland, and the remainder are in Wales and Northern Ireland. The WHO said that some of the cases were transferred to specialist children’s liver units, and six children underwent liver transplantation.

The cause is currently unknown. The WHO said that hepatitis viruses—A, B, C, E, and D—have been excluded after laboratory testing. Further investigations are ongoing, the U.N. agency said, adding it expects more cases to be reported in the coming days.

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Bizarre neurological illness plagues young Canadians

Dozens of young people with no preexisting conditions are developing symptoms of a new disease as activists and families suspect a cover-up on the part of the local government.

A whistleblower with Vitalité Health Network in New Brunswick told The Guardian on Sunday that symptoms include hallucinations, difficulty thinking, limited mobility, insomnia, and rapid weight loss. Local government has reportedly struggled to dismiss the growing number of cases as Alzheimer’s or other neurological diseases uncommon outside the elderly.

While the official number of cases recorded since the mystery illness was first publicly acknowledged in early spring has not budged upward from 48, multiple sources told The Guardian that as many as 150 people may have contracted the fast-moving illness. Still more young people require assessment, and several have died.

“I’m truly concerned about these cases because they seem to evolve so fast,” the source told the outlet, acknowledging that “we owe them some kind of explanation.”

One of the more disturbing elements of the condition is how little is known regarding transmission. In at least nine cases, caretakers and others in close contact with sick individuals have developed similar symptoms to the ailing party, suggesting the illness not only spreads readily between unrelated individuals but that there may be environmental factors involved. Some have compared the illness to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal brain disease caused by misshapen proteins called prions, though screening reportedly produced no confirmed CJD cases.

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