Scientists finally found the cause of the mysterious hepatitis in children: it turned out that the lockdown was to blame

British experts believe they have identified the cause of the recent wave of mysterious childhood hepatitis that is affecting young children around the world. with the BBC.

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Studies show that two common viruses have returned since the end of the pandemic lockdown and have caused rare but very serious cases of hepatitis.

More than 1000 children, many under the age of five, in 35 countries are believed to have been affected.

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Some, including 12 in the UK, have required life-saving liver transplants.

Two teams of researchers from London and Glasgow say babies were exposed to the virus later than usual due to Covid restrictions. They missed early immunity to:

• an adenovirus that usually causes colds and indigestion.
• adeno-associated virus number two, which usually does not cause disease and requires a co-infecting "helper" virus, such as adenovirus, to replicate.

This may explain why some have developed unusual and worrisome liver complications.

Three-year-old Noah, who lives in Chelmsford, Essex, needed an urgent liver transplant after suffering from a serious illness with hepatitis.

His mother, Rebecca Cameron-McIntosh, says the experience was terrible for her family.

“There was nothing wrong with him before,” she says. “And the fact that it suddenly happened so quickly is terrible.” I think it took us by surprise. We just assumed it was one small problem that would be easy to solve, but in reality it just kept snowballing.”

Initially, Rebecca was on the waiting list to donate part of her liver, but after a serious reaction to her medications, she ended up in intensive care.

Noah was put on the transplant list and shortly thereafter he received a new organ.

His recovery is going well, but he will have to take immunosuppressants for the rest of his life to keep his body from rejecting the new liver.

Rebecca says, "There's something heartbreaking about it, because you follow the rules, you do what you have to do to protect vulnerable people, and then in some horrible roundabout way, your own child becomes more vulnerable."

Such cases are rare. Most children who become infected with these types of viruses recover quickly.

It's unclear why some then develop liver inflammation, but genetics may play a role.

Scientists have ruled out any connection to the coronavirus or Covid vaccines.

One of the researchers, Professor Judith Breuer, an expert in virology at University College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: “During the lockdown, when children weren’t playing with each other, they didn’t transmit viruses to each other. They did not develop immunity to the common infections they had previously encountered.

“When restrictions were lifted, children began to mingle, viruses began to circulate freely - and suddenly, with this lack of prior immunity, they were exposed to a whole battery of new infections,” she said.

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Experts are hopeful that there will be fewer cases now, but they are still ready for new outbreaks of diseases.

Professor Emma Thomson, who led the research at the University of Glasgow, said many questions remained unanswered. “Larger studies are urgently needed to examine the role of AAV2 in pediatric hepatitis cases. We also need to learn more about the seasonal circulation of AAV2, a virus that is not routinely monitored—it is possible that the peak of adenoviral infection coincided with the peak of AAV2 exposure, leading to unusual presentations of hepatitis in susceptible young children,” she said.

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