The Ministry of Health analyzes whether ten deaths in the country were caused by hepatitis of unknown origin, the mysterious hepatitis.
According to the folder, the victims are from Rio Grande do Norte, Minas Gerais, Maranhão, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. They were among 96 cases under investigation.
At least 19 states have records of patients with symptoms of the disease. So far, ten transplants have been performed.
The ministry points out that there are no confirmed cases of the disease in the country.
São Paulo is the state with the highest number of cases under analysis: 32. They were registered in 21 cities, four of them in the metropolitan region (Diadema, Embu-Guaçu, Itapevi and São Bernardo do Campo).
Symptoms of the disease include fever, jaundice (yellowing of the skin), seizures, loss of consciousness, dark urine or pale stools, joint and muscle pain, nausea, vomiting or abdominal pain, loss of appetite, and pruritus (itching at different points in the body). skin for no apparent reason).
The WHO (World Health Organization) states that there are 920 probable cases of the disease in 33 countries, in addition to 18 deaths and 45 transplants.
The document issued by the Ministry of Health also says this using the organization’s data, in the same way that it indicates that there were 10 transplants and 10 deaths in the country.
For the WHO, there are no cases of mysterious hepatitis in the world because the organization does not even indicate guidelines for a case to be considered confirmed. The closest to that are the probable cases.
The organization indicates that the disease poses a moderate risk on a global level, although it treats all cases as probable. The justification is the difficulty in determining the cause of the disease and the mode of transmission – it is not possible to rule out that mysterious hepatitis is transmitted from one person to another.
The number of cases may be even higher due to differences in the way countries collect information.
Data regarding the biological sex of patients is an example of this. Only 45% of probable cases indicated the biological sex of people with symptoms. The latest report on the disease published by the organization indicated that most of those infected are female.
The same is true for the age of the patients. The data show that most children (78%) with probable mysterious hepatitis are younger than 6 years old.
The first cases of the disease were reported on 5 April this year, when the UK government notified the WHO of the existence of ten cases of hepatitis of unknown origin in Scotland. All patients were younger than 10 years old.
Currently, the UK has 267 cases of the disease classified as probable.
The US is the country with the most likely cases, with a total of 305. Japan and Mexico each have 58 cases, and Italy 34.
Some countries and health organizations adopt different WHO classifications.
This is the case of the British health agency, which says it has 258 confirmed cases of the disease, according to a report on June 23.
Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver that can be caused by viral infections and even excessive consumption of alcohol, as well as some drugs and toxic substances.
There are five known viruses that cause hepatitis: A, B, C, D and E. In addition to these, there is autoimmune hepatitis, in which the body’s own immune system attacks the liver.
In the case of mysterious hepatitis, as it is also known, the causative agent has not been identified.
The British health agency and the WHO are investigating whether a change in the adenovirus genome could be the cause of the disease. Adenovirus is the virus responsible for the common cold, flu, and even intestinal and stomach problems. The relationship with Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, has not been ruled out.
In Europe, of the 371 cases of the disease that were tested for the presence of adenovirus, 203 were positive, equivalent to 55%. In the case of Sars-CoV-2, it was recorded in 15% of the samples, totaling 47 infected people.
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