- The Ministry of Health of Argentina reported on Wednesday afternoon a picture of acute childhood hepatitis of unknown origin.
- This case becomes the first case of this disease registered in the Latin American region.
- According to the statement delivered by the health authority, the patient is an 8-year-old boy.
The Ministry of Health of Argentina reported on the afternoon of this Wednesday a picture of acute childhood hepatitis of unknown originwhich becomes the first case of this disease registered in the Latin American region.
According to the statement delivered by the health authority, the patient is an 8-year-old boy who is admitted to the Children’s Hospital in the city of Rosario.
This case is added to those already reported in around 20 countries where patients with the same condition have been presented.
In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) had reported this Tuesday that they have counted 228 cases of acute childhood hepatitis of unknown origin in less than a month.
The first cases were reported in early April, when the United Kingdom registered symptoms of the disease in ten patients, all under 10 years of age.
By mid-April, 75 cases had already been registered. It was also reported in a patients with a similar diagnosis in the United States, Israel, Belgium and Indonesia.
And it was in the latter country where the first fatalities were recorded: three minors died after being diagnosed with the disease.
Jaundice and vomiting
Hepatitis is an inflammatory disease that affects the liver. Its cause can be very diverse: infectious (viral or bacterial), immune (autoimmune hepatitis) or toxic (alcohol, toxic substances or drugs).
But according to the report made by specialists where these cases have appeared, The virus that is usually associated with these ailments has not been detected in any of the patients.
Immune or toxic origin has also been ruled out in the case of minors, especially since the children were healthy the week before showing the first symptoms.
The symptoms Common in this disease are abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, jaundice (yellow skin and mucous membranes), skin itching, dark urine and poorly pigmented stools..
The WHO he also reported that a tenth of patients with this disease had required a liver transplant.
Both experts and the WHO itself have begun to theorize about the possible origin of the disease and have pointed out that it could be an adenovirus, type 41, which has been detected in most cases.
However, what baffles doctors is that this virus is responsible for respiratory and not liver conditions, so the WHO has made it clear that so far it is only about a hypothesis.