SARS-Cov-2
Researchers believe the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is to blame for the mystery episodes of acute hepatitis in hundreds of young children around the world.
Children receiving Covid-19 are at dramatically elevated risk for liver dysfunction subsequently, according to a paper published on medRxiv on Saturday ahead of peer review.
However, most children with acute hepatitis (which is uncommon in that age group) do not have a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Instead, the vast majority were found to be infected with an adenovirus known as 41F, which does not affect the liver. A separate team of researchers suggests in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology that the affected youngsters, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated, may have had mild or asymptomatic Covid infections that went unreported.
If this is the case, residual coronavirus particles in the gastrointestinal tract of these youngsters could be priming the immune system to overreact to adenovirus-41F with high levels of inflammatory proteins, causing liver injury.
“We recommend that children with acute hepatitis be tested for “SARS-CoV-2 persistence in stool and other signs of liver damage caused by the coronavirus’s spike protein, which is a “superantigen.” They claim that this over sensitizes the immune system.
