19 cases of mystery hepatitis in children found in Colorado
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- The World Health Organization says it is now aware of 650 cases of hepatitis in children with no known cause across the globe. Some of those cases are in Colorado and could have severe effects on children's livers.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has said it doesn't know what is causing the cases. But over the last 7 months, cases in Colorado are continuing to pop up.
"The doctors just haven't been able to figure out exactly what it is," said Dr. Alexis Burakoff, an epidemiologist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. The mystery illness targeting children has been making its way around the world since at least late last year, and since November, there have now been 19 cases found in colorado, including 15 related hospitalizations. That number though may not represent all of the cases.
"There could be kids that aren't very sick that we won't hear about because their liver function tests never get that bad," Dr. Burakoff said.
On October 1, the CDC put out a call to health departments across the country, asking them to start monitoring for acute hepatitis with no known cause.
"Luckily it is still extremely rare, which is good news. We're definitely still taking it seriously, but we're not seeing a big spike in cases or anything like that."
The majority of cases have been found in Europe, But Colorado accounts for nearly nine percent of probable cases in the U.S.
Geographically, the cases in Colorado are pretty scattered according to the state health department.
But doctors think they may have found a possible link though, adenovirus. Adenovirus has been found in at least three of the 19 cases in Colorado.
"Hepatitis itself, like having liver problems, isn't contagious, but one of the viruses that are being considered as the cause, adenovirus, is spread person to person," Dr. Burakoff explained.
Similar to other state health departments, CDPHE didn’t track hepatitis cases caused by something other than viruses until clusters of unexplained illnesses emerged last year. As a result, it could be difficult to be sure if the 19 cases are anything abnormal.
