GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday it had received reports from around 20 countries of the occurrence of at least 228 cases of severe acute hepatitis of unknown origin in young children and that several dozen other cases were the subject of in-depth analyses.
“As of May 1, at least 228 probable cases have been reported to WHO by 20 different countries and 50 additional cases are under investigation,” the spokesperson said during a press briefing at WHO headquarters. UN organization in Geneva.
The United Kingdom announced at the beginning of the month the occurrence of an abnormally high number of cases of severe acute hepatitis without identified origin in children, who were in particular not carriers of the viruses responsible for the different types of hepatitis.
Since then, several European countries, as well as the United States and other countries have also reported suspected cases of liver inflammation occurring in children with no known cause of severe hepatitis.
These cases continue to be analyzed by the health authorities, who seek in particular to determine whether they could have an infectious, toxicological or environmental origin.
In France, the latest assessment communicated by Public Health France (SPF), stopped on April 29, mentions two patients meeting the case definition of these unexplained severe pediatric hepatitis, reported by the Lyon University Hospital.
(Report Emma Farge, French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)
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