Muge Cevik Profile picture
Apr 25 15 tweets 8 min read
Late breaker session at #ECCMID2022 on acute hepatitis cases of unknown origin in children.
So far, 169 cases have been reported from 11 countries since first case was identified in 31 March. 17 have required liver transplant & at least one death has been reported. #IDTwitter
Almost all cases had high transaminases, majority of children have been hospitalised. No common exposure has been identified, no link to COVID19 vaccination. Adenovirus F41 was identified in several cases, but it doesn’t fully explain the clinical severity observed. #ECCMID2022
But there are still many uncertainties about acute hepatitis cases observed. Especially the # of cases, exact age group, clinical presentation, uncertain test results as not all cases were tested for adenovirus, risk factors and transmission routes remain unclear. #ECCMID2022
Based on cases reported in the U.K. acute SARS-CoV-2 account for 16% of cases reported. However acute severe hepatitis has not been a common feature of COVID19 in children, so it’s less likely to explain this presentation. #ECCMID2022 @meera_chand
Adenovirus is detected in 40/53 tested cases but not all cases are tested. Adenovirus testing has been inconsistent in other samples, and it’s too early to confirm characterisation. It’s important for all countries to share their data once available. #ECCMID22
This is a really good slide summarising the diagnostic workout of cases with acute hepatitis of unknown origin. Many cases are yet to be tested for other pathogens, so far majority tested positive for adenovirus but inconsistencies in testing is a big issue. #ECCMID2022
There may be some asymptomatic / mild cases (which will be identified with surveillance) but the majority of cases reported so far presented with gastrointestinal symptoms including jaundice, vomiting, abdominal pain. #ECCMID2022
There are so many uncertainties. Working hypotheses include:
-adenovirus coinfection w/ other infections
-factors increasing susceptibility & severity of adenovirus infection
-toxin, drug or environmental factors
There is still more work to be done #ECCMID2022
Question from the audience about serology testing for SARS-Cov-2. @meera_chand suggests that serology testing is in progress for both anti-N & anti-S, but it will possibly be difficult to interpret these results. #ECCMID2022
Interesting discussion about whether clinical presentation could be explained by adenovirus alone. The general consensus is that it’s less likely for adeno to cause acute severe presentation in healthy children, so need to continue investigating +/- other causes. #ECCMID2022
In summary, causes of acute hepatitis seen in children remain unknown. It could be an infectious or non infectious cause. Unlikely to be covid or vaccine related. Toxins, drugs & other exposures still need to be explored. Increased awareness & surveillance is critical.#ECCMID2022
Some personal thoughts:
1- While adenovirus % is high among acute hepatitis cases, we don’t know how it compares to the prevalence seen in the general population. So, we need to see a case - control analysis comparing different pathogens to identify a real signal. #ECCMID2022
2- Adenoviruses are non enveloped viruses & are resistant to changes in the environment and therefore DNA can stay +ve for a long time after infection. Viral loads seen in detected cases are low, so may not be acute infection. Need to explore the causal link better. #ECCMID2022
3- and lastly, we need to keep an open mind & explore other non infectious causes such as food poisoning, drug or metal exposure. In my view, covid or even adeno (given low VL) looks less likely to be the culprit here, but I would want to see a case-control analysis. #ECCMID2022
Data on acute hepatitis of unknown origin presrnted at #ECCMID2022 are now available in this excellent @UKHSA technical briefing (summarised in this thread) assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

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More from @mugecevik

Dec 15, 2021
Very interesting analyses about the virology of #Omicron, which may explain the faster spread of this variant.

According to a new lab study, Omicron infects & multiplies ~70x faster than the Delta variant and the wild type SARS-CoV-2 in the human bronchus, but not in the lung.
In this ex vivo study (press release), Michael Chan, Malik Peiris & John Nicholls et al. @hkumed show that at 24h after infection Omicron replicated ~70x faster than Delta in bronchus. Interestingly, it replicated ~10x less efficiently in the lung tissue. hkumed.hk/96b127/
Another analysis by @BalazsLab also supports these findings. In this lab study w/ pseudoviruses, Omicron showed greater ability to infect cells than other variants, which was ~ 4 times more infectious than the original strain, also more than Delta. medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
Read 8 tweets
Dec 7, 2021
Important preliminary data from SA looking at whether vaccine elicited antibodies are still effective against #Omicron.

Good & bad news: There is a big drop in neutralisation activity, but it's partial & hybrid (vax + infection) holds fairly well. 🧵

This is a live virus neutralisation assay. Neutralisation studies can tell us whether levels of Ab in the blood (convalescent and vaccinated plasma) are high enough to prevent the virus from infecting cells in the lab.

.@sigallab & colleagues tested plasma from those who received vax only (orange) & those who had vax + previous infection (green) and showed a significant (~40x) decline in neutralisation activity, but this was not a complete escape & reduction was less in hybrid anti-sera.
Read 15 tweets
Dec 3, 2021
🦠 There’s a lot we don’t yet understand about Omicron, including its impact on immunity and what it means for vaccines. New data will be emerging over the next few wks, which could be misinterpreted w/o context. What we might expect & how to interpret the emerging data? 🧵(1/n)
1- Genomic data:
The biggest concern with omicron is that it contains >30 mutations in just the spike protein, the part which helps it enter human cells and the target for vaccines. This mutation profile is very different than other VOCs. (2/n) Image
There are plausible biological consequences of some of these mutations, but we don't really know the combined effect of all these mutations, so full significance of omicron is uncertain. (3/n) Image
Read 37 tweets
Aug 24, 2021
There is a lot of concern/confusion about vaccine effectiveness against the delta variant. How effective are the vaccines against Delta & how to interpret real-world observational data? So much misinformation is being circulated, so this thread brings key data together. 🧵(1/n)
Vaccine efficacy measures the relative reduction in infection/disease for the vaccinated vs unvaccinated arm. For instance, a vaccine that eliminates all risk would have an efficacy of 100%. Efficacy of 50% means you have a 50% reduced risk compared to an unvaxxed person. (2/n) Image
All studies assessing the performance of vaccines against Delta are based on real-world data (vaccine effectiveness), which are influenced by variant transmissibility, human behaviour, and immunity status of the population, therefore they require careful interpretation. (3/n) Image
Read 25 tweets
Feb 7, 2021
There is a lot of confusion about the efficacy of AstraZeneca/ChAdOx1 vaccine against COVID19 due to B.1.351 / 501Y.V2 - summarising the results of phase 1b/2a double-blind randomized trial conducted in South Africa (based on @GovernmentZA press conference).🧵(1/6)
Adults aged 18-65 years without severe comorbidities and HIV were recruited. It was designed to show >60% efficacy against symptomatic disease, but because only 2000 participants were recruited with 42 total events, this analysis was not statistically powered. (2/6) Image
In total, 1749 participants were recruited, the population enrolled was young and generally healthy; the prevalence of hypertension, respiratory disease, and diabetes was low. Therefore, it was not designed to assess efficacy against severe disease. (3/6) Image
Read 7 tweets
Jan 11, 2021
Concerns about outdoor transmission risk seem to be trending again. What is the risk of transmission outdoors and should we be more worried about outdoors with the new more-transmissible variant? 🧵(1/n)
The risk of transmission is complex and multi-dimensional. It depends on many factors: contact pattern (duration, proximity, activity), individual factors, environment (e.g. outdoor, indoor), socioeconomic factors, and mitigation measures in place. (2/n)(gov.uk/government/pub…\) Image
Transmission is facilitated by close proximity, prolonged contact, and frequency of contacts. So, the longer the time you spend with an infected person and the larger the gathering, the higher the risk is. (3/n) (academic.oup.com/cid/advance-ar…\) Image
Read 26 tweets

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