If it were now a case of viral hepatitis caused by adenoviruses or Sars-CoV-2, there would still be very few affected children compared to the total number of infected children. Why is it that some children become seriously ill while most others do not?
That’s a good question that no one can answer right now. One can only say Solomonic: It is either the patient or the virus. As with many other things, there may be immunological or other factors in the patient that are causing them to react unusually violently to something that might seem mundane. There are certainly examples of this, and it is generally known in the case of allergies.
Another example is meningococci. About ten percent of us have meningococci on the tonsils, but very rarely does this lead to serious illness. This is probably due to the pathogenicity factors of the meningococci and probably also to factors in the immune system of the patients.
What is the next step in analyzing and researching hepatitis cases?
The first step is a position determination, i.e. the request from the Robert Koch Institute on the situation in Germany on April 29th. So this is still going. The RKI retrospectively asked about cases from January 1, 2022. I suspect that this year we will wait and see whether there are more cases of hepatitis and whether this might even become a big wave. According to what is known so far, there is no problem in Germany at the moment. Although there are occasional cases of acute liver failure, nothing above the normal rate has been noted.
Attempts will also be made to determine the pathogenicity factors of the viruses involved. But that’s not easy in virology. With bacteria, things are a little easier in this regard because they are easier to cultivate in culture.
We currently know that there is a clearly over-random cluster in the UK and US, it may just be the result of increased attention in the wake of the pandemic. This is also described in the publications of the NHS. The greater attention to potential corona consequences could lead to finding more things that would not have been noticed before.
What does that mean for parents now? Do you have to worry about the hepatitis cases?
No, we are still talking about individual cases. And even if there are already several isolated cases, I see no reason for concern. Anyway, I’m not worried about my kids.