The recent outbreak of a spate of cases of acute juvenile hepatitis has shocked the world and alarmed many in the epidemiological community.
The latest spread had been within Singapore, afflicting a ten month old baby, who had also been recently infected with coronavirus.
The number of victims of this hepatitis outbreak who’ve also been infected with coronavirus is strikingly high, although many still suspect an adenovirus might be the culprit. Others doubt this cause, as more than half of its victims globally have no signs of adenovirus infection.
Some suspect that this represents another case of politicized public health superseding science, in that states who wish to minimize the perceived threat of COVID may be deliberately obfuscating such links before they can either be proved or disproved.
The American CDC, in investigating a smaller outbreak in Alabama said that all of the cases there had tested positive for an adenovirus, and although an unknown number of them were confirmed to also host SARS-COV2 as well, the CDC seemed to rule out the link with COVID.
The director of Scotland’s public health bureau suggested that it may actually be a combination of the two viruses, through the interaction of a co-infection with both in hosts.
The PRC, through Global Times, echoed this, suggesting that COVID might cause immunosuppression in infants and children, leading them to be more susceptible to common adenovirus infections, which if severe can lead to hepatitis.
The WHO said that as of May 1st, there were 228 global confirms cases of this new juvenile hepatitis, with 50 more cases under investigation.