Mysterious hepatitis appeared in Southeast Asia, what do Vietnamese parents do to protect their children?

Mysterious hepatitis is a concern of many countries around the world. Although many theories have been proposed, the cause of this hepatitis is still a “mystery” because scientists have not yet determined the exact cause of the disease.

In Vietnam, no cases of mysterious hepatitis have been recorded yet, but the risk of invasive disease is great, so prevention, increased surveillance, and early detection of cases are urgent. The Ministry of Health has also asked leading institutes to strengthen surveillance of mysterious acute hepatitis in children.

According to BSCKII Nguyen Nguyen Huyen – Head of Medical Examination Department at Kim Chung Campus, Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, a leading unit in infectious diseases, updated from the World Health Organization (WHO) said that there were 278 Cases of mysterious hepatitis in over 20 countries, 5 cases of children have died from mysterious hepatitis. An estimated 10% of children with occult hepatitis require a liver transplant.

Under the direction of the Ministry of Health, in order to strengthen surveillance and early detection of acute hepatitis of unknown cause in children, during the examination at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, doctors exploited more information, try to detect early signs and symptoms of suspected hepatitis in children – especially children with signs of vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, whether the child has hepatitis or not (based on liver enzyme tests) or the child has signs of yellow urine, yellow eyes, fulminant liver failure..

BS. Nguyen Nguyen Huyen said that although the exact cause of the mysterious hepatitis had not been determined, there was suspicion that this disease was caused by the Adenovirus. Adenovirus is not a new virus and in Vietnam there are many units that can test for this virus. At the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, which has a standard test system, which has recognized test results in more than 130 countries, Vietnam can completely determine whether a patient has Adenovirus or not.

“However, the mysterious hepatitis is not entirely certain that it is caused by the common Adenovirus but may be caused by a mutated strain, so based on conventional techniques it is difficult to ‘catch’ this is Adenovirus. Therefore, we still need to wait for more information from experts around the world to find out what the mysterious hepatitis is caused by the virus, what agent, whether there is a mutation or not… From there, there is a specific gene segment to test to find the exact cause of mysterious hepatitis.

Some other opinions say that Adenovirus is just another trigger factor that leads to mysterious hepatitis, even there is a suspicion that it is related to SARS-CoV-2… but none of them have been. scientific evidence,” noted the infectious disease expert.

Controversy over the transmission route, will there be an outbreak on a large scale?

Also according to BS. Huyen, in the literature describing hepatitis viruses that are usually transmitted through the gastrointestinal tract or through blood, there has been no virus that causes respiratory hepatitis that causes obvious liver damage like hepatitis. secret.

“If there is damage to the liver, it is usually after causing damage to the respiratory tract, leading to multiple organ failure and damage to other organs, then liver damage. Respiratory viruses rarely cause damage. the current situation of mysterious hepatitis “- the expert said.

Based on the description of symptoms of mysterious hepatitis cases in the world, first, children have symptoms in the gastrointestinal tract first (children with abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea …), after a few days, they will be tired, loss of appetite, yellow eyes, jaundice, yellow urination and liver failure. None of the children had any fever.

Therefore, according to BS. Huyen, there is a high possibility that the mysterious hepatitis agent is transmitted through blood and gastrointestinal tract – especially pay attention to the gastrointestinal tract because the first manifestation of children is in the digestive tract.

How to prevent mysterious hepatitis

– BS. Huyen recommends that if parents see that their child has abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea, they should take the child to a doctor to see if the child has liver damage, thereby taking timely treatment measures for the child. Parents absolutely do not arbitrarily treat children.

In case the child has symptoms of yellow urine, yellow eyes, the disease is quite late, very dangerous.

– In the current context, people have been through a fairly long time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the awareness of disease prevention has been improved and it is necessary to maintain this awareness and habit.

– In addition, with mysterious hepatitis, it is necessary to pay attention to improving personal hygiene, disinfecting hands frequently, washing hands before eating and after going to the toilet.

– Implement cooked eating and drinking, raise awareness of food safety and hygiene, use safe food…

– At home and at school, children need to be supplemented with proper nutrition, vaccinated according to the national expanded immunization program to have a healthy immune system, and increase outdoor physical activities. .

– Children should be taught to maintain the habit of washing hands and disinfecting hands. Children should not be too worried to limit outdoor activities.

– Closely monitor the child, when there are suspicious signs, send the child to the hospital for examination.

According to Duong Hai