Canada is seeing an uptick in cases of unexplained hepatitis in kids. What does this mean?
Global News
More children in Canada have been diagnosed with severe hepatitis with an unknown cause, but experts remain cautious about whether this indicates a major increase.
Canada is reporting a higher number of children diagnosed with unexplained severe hepatitis, but experts remain cautious about whether this indicates a major increase in cases.
As of July 13, there were 24 cases of acute severe hepatitis in children not caused by known hepatitis viruses, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). This is up from 10 cases reported in May.
The children, who are between the ages of less than one year and 13 years old, became sick between Nov. 3, 2021 and June 29, 2022. All children were hospitalized and two children have required a liver transplant, according to PHAC.
Ontario is reporting the most cases at 13, Alberta has four cases, Quebec and Manitoba each have three and British Columbia has one.
A spokeswoman for PHAC says, while the number of cases has increased over the last two months, some of these cases may date back to fall of last year.
“On April 15, the World Health Organization issued a statement identifying multiple cases of acute severe hepatitis reported in several countries. This information prompted PHAC to ask provinces and territories to take a retrospective look at patients in their jurisdictions,” said Anne Genier, senior media relations adviser for Health Canada and PHAC.
“This process does take time, as we are asking clinicians to review case reports back to October 2021, and to collect additional information from patients that will inform PHAC’s national investigation.”
PHAC says it remains unclear if this represents an increase in cases of severe hepatitis among children in Canada, as baseline data for these incidents does not currently exist.