Globally, more than 270 cases have been identified, according to WHO officials.
By Arielle Mitropoulos and Dr. Grace Cullen
Child dies in mystery outbreakThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a nationwide alert about a global hepatitis outbreak that has sickened kids in six states and killed one child.STOCK IMAGE/Orion Production/Shutterstock
U.S. and global health officials are sounding the alarm about an increasing number of mysterious cases of severe hepatitis occurring among children.
Earlier this month, researchers in the United States and Europe announced they were investigating small clusters of the cases emerging across the globe. Soon after, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an alert to doctors and providers to be on the lookout for the unusual cases.
Globally, around 278 cases have been identified, according to World Health Organization officials, with many of the sick children under the age of 10.
“What is particularly unusual is that the majority of these children were previously healthy,” Dr. Philippa Easterbrook, a medical expert with the WHO's Global HIV Hepatitis and STI Programme, said during a press conference on Thursday.
The causal agent of these cases of acute hepatitis, or liver inflammation, remains unknown. Experts say hepatitis is often caused by an infection, but not always.
In an effort to identify what may be driving the outbreaks, the WHO has initiated a full investigation, encouraging countries to report concerning cases, with a team of now scientists hoping to find any potential connection between the cases.
Link to the original article : https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/clusters-severe-hepatitis-cases-children-investigated/story?id=84379149