The number of children afflicted with a mysterious liver illness is rising, as are the number of states reporting cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of May 18, there were 180 cases under investigation, and 36 states had reported at least one case under investigation.
On May 6, the CDC confirmed it was investigating 109 cases in 24 states and said that five children had died.
Doctors in other countries have reported seeing the same acute hepatitis, reporting 105 cases in 13 EU countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said last week.
The illness has afflicted otherwise healthy children, most under the age of five. In the United States, more than 90% of patients had to be hospitalized, and 14%, or around 25 people, have required liver transplants, NBC News reported.
Disease experts say they are still not sure what’s causing the disease. The CDC said that more than half of the cases in the U.S. also tested positive for adenovirus, as did 72% of the cases in the United Kingdom and 60% across Europe, NBC News reported.
A letter published in the medical journal The Lancet suggested the hepatitis may be the consequence of an adenovirus infection of a patient who may previously have had COVID-19.
Some scientists have questioned a potential link to the coronavirus. Doctors in both the U.S. and U.K. have said that most of the children they have treated for hepatitis did not have any documented history of COVID-19 infection, The Washington Post reported. However, previous data released by the CDC indicated that more than half of the U.S., including 3 out of 4 children, had been exposed to the virus.
While experts have been unable to rule out the possibility of COVID-19 as an underlying contributor, there is no evidence that the disease is directly causing hepatitis in children, NBC News reported.
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