“This hepatitis looks like one of the 5 known viral hepatitis, from A to E, but the cause has not yet been identified. “In many cases, adenovirus 41 has been isolated, but not 100%,” he told ERT’s First Program Professor of Pathology-Gastroenterology of the Medical School of EKPA and President of the National Transplant Organization, George Papatheodoridis.
“It’s strange that this adenovirus causes this hepatitis in healthy children“That’s why everyone is trying to identify something else” added Mr. Papatheodoridis, as children who have previously passed covid and their immune system has decreased, as so far the adenovirus causes mild liver involvement, does not cause liver failure and liver transplantation as in some of these circumstances. “In fact, the percentage is high, in 10% of cases the liver damage is so severe that the liver is not expected to recover and if the liver failure is so severe after a while the child will not be able to do it and unfortunately will “he lost his life if he does not have a transplant”, noted Mr. Papatheodoridis.
It has nothing to do with the covid vaccine, he added cases of acute hepatitis almost no children were vaccinated for coronavirus. “However, some of the children who developed acute hepatitis had been diagnosed with coronavirus in the last trimester, so one of the hypotheses is that the coronavirus is associated with these cases. “Another hypothesis is that in some children who may be predisposed to such a reaction, their untrained immune system, due to their inclusion in the pandemic, reacts strongly to a new virus.”
In any case of acute liver damage, if we exclude the usual 5 hepatitis, then the suspicion of this new unknown hepatitis, pointed out Mr. Papatheodoridis. “There is a concern, but the list of causes that raise transaminases is very long, even the coronavirus raises them, as well as the infectious mononucleosis that adolescents often go through, so a picture of hepatitis can be due to many infections that are undiagnosed. the first day. “So until the common causes of the first day are ruled out and until it is identified as one of the known rare causes, there is concern if this is the unknown new form of hepatitis,” he said.
In relation to the unfortunate case of need for a liver transplant, Mr. Papatheodoridis noted that in our country we have a small number of donors of solid organs. We do not even have one every day. We have one, two a week. The donor may also be incompatible. So in an emergency where a transplant needs to be done in one or two days, you need a system that has many donors per day, so that one of them can match the one who needs the transplant. “So in Greece it is not easy to find a transplant in a short time and that is why in emergency liver transplants, which are these thunderous hepatitis, we have a transnational connection with Italy, as is the case with adults,” explained the EOM president.
ERT
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