Growing number of U.S. states reporting mysterious hepatitis outbreaks among children

At least ten additional states are reporting similar cases of severe cases of pediatric hepatitis.

The CDC reported the first cases in Alabama did not have significant medical problems, and ranged from ages younger than two to older than five years old, with five out of nine patients contracting adenovirus type 41, the virus known to cause the common cold. 

But the agency noted the liver biopsies from the six patients who showed varying degree of hepatitis did not reveal any evidence of adenovirus on pathology, according to a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.