Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 Profile picture
I cover infectious diseases @statnews. 2020 Polk winner. Nieman '11. She/her. #H5N2 #birdflu #Covid #polio #flu, #RSV. I have not paid for a blue checkmark.

Apr 26, 2022, 7 tweets

1. @UKHSA published a technical brief today on the unusual #hepatitis cases in young children. It contains a bunch of interesting information. You can find it here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

2. So far the UK has found 114 of these unusual #hepatitis cases in kids. (111 in the screenshot is out of date.) Most of the kids are under 5. 10 required liver transplants. The UK is reporting the largest number of these cases so far.

3. The unusual #hepatitis cases date back to the beginning of this year in the UK (to October in Alabama) but the preponderance of them have been seen in March & April. The UK is also seeing a lot of adenovirus activity. Adenovirus is the main suspect here.

4. But there are a lot of hypotheses on the table about what might be causing these unusual #Hepatitis cases.

5. How is #UKHSA going about trying to figure out what is responsible for the unusual #hepatitis cases? It is conducting a lot of studies.

6. @UKHSA is already in a position where it can say some things aren't very likely. There's no travel link. It doesn't appear to be diet or water source related, or linked to exposure to animals.

7. At this point, the main suspect is an adenovirus, type 41. Subtyping done on viruses from 11 of the kids showed adenovirus 41 was present. (Alabama found it in 9 of 9 cases.) But other adenoviruses were found too.
Watch this space.

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