All 17 pediatric hospitals in Canada are looking for “unusual” pediatric liver disease, but the number of possible cases being considered remains in the single digits, a British Columbia provincial health official said Thursday.
Dr Bonnie Henry told reporters that none of the possible cases of severe acute hepatitis or inflammation of the liver were in British Columbia and it was not her place to identify where they were or exactly how many.
Health officials are developing common case report forms and testing algorithms to use across the country, Henry said.
“We will watch this very closely,” Henry said. “As we begin to look more closely, we are likely to identify some cases.”
Nearly 200 cases of sudden liver disease have been reported in children in at least a dozen countries and at least one person has died, prompting health authorities to look for a cause.
British health officials said they were investigating what was behind the peak there, noting that there was growing evidence that the cases could be linked to a common virus.
The leading suspect is the adenovirus, which was found in 75% of confirmed tested cases, the UK Health Security Agency said in a statement Monday.
U.S. officials said this month they were investigating a group of otherwise unexplained cases of hepatitis diagnosed in nine Alabama children who also tested positive for adenovirus.
Two other theories suggest that the disease is caused by a toxin or viral coinfection with COVID-19, which is linked to inflammation in other parts of the body, Henry said.
On Wednesday, the Public Health Agency of Canada said it was investigating reports of liver inflammation among young children in Canada and was investigating any links with the United Kingdom and the United States.
Henry said health officials are reviewing case data around the world. A special investigation team is working on case definitions based on what health authorities see in the UK, and in the United States in particular, she added.
The first cases probably occurred in October, she said, and about 10 percent of children needed liver transplants, Henry said.
“These children get a lot of gastrointestinal disease, so things like abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and then they progress and develop jaundice or yellowing of the skin and eyes very quickly,” she said.
The common viruses that cause infectious liver inflammation – hepatitis A to E – have not been detected in more than 100 cases investigated in the UK.
The disease is not associated with COVID-19 vaccinations, Henry added, given that the majority of sick children are under the age of 6 and therefore do not qualify for vaccines.
– Amy Smart in Vancouver with files from the Associated Press
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