Despite the decline of the “Corona” pandemic, the repercussions of the virus are still interacting, especially the side effects it leaves, including what has been reported and confirmed by scientific hypotheses, as the cause being behind the emergence of hepatitis C disease of unknown origin in children.
And the consultant of the digestive system and liver, Dr. Fahd Al-Najjar, said in statements to a local Arabic daily, “the continued monitoring of cases of hepatitis C of unknown origin among children, scientifically, necessitates alertness to the symptoms that indicate the beginning of this infection in young children, including a sense of fatigue, abdominal pain and nausea, eye, skin, itching, stool color turning light and urine color dark, noting that since May 1, about 300 cases have been monitored in about 20 countries, most of which required hospitalization, including 18 cases that required liver transplantation and 5 deaths.
The sources pointed out that the main cause of infection is unknown and is still under research.
Al-Najjar explained that “researchers are still putting forward the idea that the cause is the Corona virus through one of three ways: the first is stimulating the immune system that attacks the liver, even after a mild infection with ( Covid) with what is known as (Post-Covid Syndrome) or (Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (mis-c), the second is to reduce immunity and make children vulnerable to infection with other viruses, and the third is infection with another virus with corona so that the two viruses attack the liver at the same time.”
He pointed out that “some experts ruled out that the adenovirus, whose presence was discovered in blood samples taken from a large number of infected people, was the cause of this infection, due to the absence of the virus in the liver samples, and they also ruled out the hypothesis that the cause is medicine or food for the same reason, and because the infections were detected in several different geographical locations.”
He added, “According to the opinions of some experts, the hypothesis that vaccination is one of the causes of infection has been excluded, because most of the infected children are those who have not yet reached the age of vaccination (five) and have not received it and the hypothesis that children stay at home during the ban was excluded.
The lack of exposure of their immune system to viruses is one of the reasons for this infection, because Sweden has not imposed any curfew, however, there are 7 cases of Swedish children infected with hepatitis.
The idea that the cause could be exposure to dogs or paracetamol also seemed unacceptable.
Al-Najjar pointed out that “most of the infected are healthy children who do not have a history of disease, which urges many experts and health institutions to stop ignoring the role of (Covid) in causing this infection, and start disclosing antibody tests, which are believed to appear in the majority of children with hepatitis.