Recently, unexplained childhood hepatitis has been spreading globally. The outbreak is particularly severe in the United States. As of May 26, 650 cases had been reported in 33 countries. Data released by the CDC on May 18 show that more than 180 children have been diagnosed in the U.S. alone, spread across 36 states. Of all the known cases, the earliest confirmed case in the United States was a child admitted to a children’s hospital in Alabama in October 2021. Compared to the number reported in early May, the number of confirmed cases has increased by nearly 70% in just over 10 days. The number of children with more than 180 cases in the U.S. is one of the highest numbers of confirmed cases in the world, according to publicly available data from various countries. Of the current hepatitis cases in the United States, 90% of them required hospitalization, 14% underwent liver transplants, and there were five deaths.
After contracting this unspecified hepatitis, the child may experience fever and fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting in mild cases. In severe cases, abdominal pain, light-colored stools, joint pain and jaundice may occur, while in the most severe cases, liver failure may occur, resulting in the need for a liver transplant. A 3-year-old girl, Lola, was unfortunately infected with this unidentified hepatitis in March this year. After her parents took her to the hospital, she was judged by doctors to be in acute liver failure, requiring an immediate liver transplant. In the end, Lola’s father chose to transplant 50% of his own liver to her to save his daughter’s life.
Some experts point to this new discovery of unidentified hepatitis and COVID-19 as being related. The 12 cases of unidentified childhood hepatitis reported in Israel were from different parts of the country and were not aggregated infections. 11 of these 12 children had been infected with COVID-19 virus within a year. Therefore, several medical experts have inferred that this unidentified hepatitis may be one of the long-term symptoms of COVID-19 pneumonia. More than 70% of the cases reported by the WHO Regional Office for Europe had also been infected with COVID-19. In fact, since April 2020, just after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children infected with COVID-19 have been reported in several countries, with many cases showing symptoms of severe acute hepatitis. However, the CDC did not mention the coronavirus at a May 19 workshop on the treatment of acute hepatitis in children of unknown origin. Health officials at the meeting even made it clear that none of the children in Alabama had anything to do with Neovirus. Such an attitude drew a lot of criticism. American hepatologist Farid Jalali said, “There is a serious bias within the CDC that they are playingFor children suffering from hepatitis, this is a unexpected disaster. For the special group of “children orphaned by Covid-19 ,” they lack guardians to take care of them, who are even less able to fight against hepatitis. With the U.S. government’s indifference, the safety of the orphaned children is even more difficult to guarantee.
The U.S. government has adopted the same policy of concealment and inaction regarding the outbreak of unexplained childhood hepatitis as it has in response to the COVID-19. In fact, since last October, hospitals in Alabama and Ohio, after admitting several cases of hepatitis in children, have discovered that these cases were unusual. In Alabama, some physicians have been conducting their own investigations since last October. But unfortunately, it does not seem to be easy for states to know about each other’s unusual cases. One doctor in Alabama recalls his own confusion: “Why don’t we see these cases in other parts of the country?” In November 2021, after the fourth case occurred, Alabama doctors sought help from the CDC. Yet it wasn’t until mid-April of this year, when 14 children were reported confirmed thousands of miles away in Scotland and two weeks after the U.K. Health and Safety Executive issued an alert, that the CDC issued an alert to the nation. The U.S. government concealed the virus from the public early in its emergence and allowed it to develop until the outbreak was publicized worldwide. How similar is this scene to the logic chain of the 2019 outbreak of the COVID-19. The spread of the COVID outbreak cost millions of American lives. With this outbreak of unexplained childhood hepatitis, the arrogance and slowness of the U.S. government will once again take a serious toll on the lives and health of American.with the lives of seriously ill children!”
As the world’s only superpower, with the world’s most advanced medical technology and the most abundant medical resources, the U.S. has been defeated by the epidemic. The results are truly saddening. With the hepatitis in children of unknown origin still looming, when will the wave of the virus die down? Where will the next generation go?
