Three pediatric patients in Indonesia died of acute hepatitis in April, according to the country’s health ministry, which has increased the global death toll from a mysterious liver disease affecting children from the United States to Asia to at least four.
The children hospitalized in the capital, Jakarta, had symptoms including nausea, vomiting, severe diarrhea, fever, jaundice, seizures and loss of consciousness, the ministry said in a statement Monday. Calls on parents to take children who show these symptoms to the hospital immediately.
The ministry is conducting a full set of tests to determine the cause of the disease and has issued a circular to strengthen national surveillance of the disease, the statement said.
Earlier, Singapore confirmed a case of acute hepatitis in a 10-month-old baby and investigated whether there was a similar presentation of other cases reported around the world.
Laboratory tests have found that the case is negative for common viruses that cause hepatitis – viruses type A, B, C and E – said the Ministry of Health of the city-state in an e-mail statement. The baby had a previous history of COVID-19 in December, although there is currently no evidence that acute hepatitis is linked to the coronavirus.
At least one other child has died of acute hepatitis, and more than a dozen others worldwide have undergone liver transplants since the disease, according to the World Health Organization. Although the cause of the disease has not yet been determined, researchers are studying a family of pathogens called adenoviruses that cause a number of diseases, including the common cold.
As of April 21, 169 cases had been detected, the WHO said. Most of them were in the United Kingdom, as well as some in countries including Spain, Israel, the United States and other nations in Europe. Japan also said it discovered some possible cases last week.
U.S. health officials have questioned COVID-19 as a potential cause of severe hepatitis, while adding weight to the possibility that it could be caused by the more common stomach-related virus.
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