Afraid of mysterious hepatitis, parents arbitrarily test liver enzymes for their children, doctors warn of dangerous consequences

BSCKII Nguyen Nguyen Huyen – Head of Kim Chung Clinic Department, Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases warned: “Although we are not subjective with mysterious hepatitis But worrying too much is not necessary. The rush to arbitrarily give children liver enzyme tests may not accurately reflect their health status, sometimes missing other dangerous diseases.”

“It is best when seeing suspicious signs, parents should take the child to see a doctor, then the doctor will specify whether testing is necessary or not. If testing is required, it should be done at the hospital prestigious medical facility with high test reliability for accurate results” – BS. Huyen consulting.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Ha – Head of Gastroenterology Department of Central Children’s Hospital also said that many parents now share about their children having to go to the doctor because of vomiting and abdominal pain. Meanwhile, there are many causes of abdominal pain and vomiting in children. Depending on the group of different causes, the child’s condition can be acute in a few days or last for weeks to months.

Abdominal pain and acute vomiting are often indicative of many dangerous diseases that require urgent intervention.

Therefore, gastroenterologists advise, when children have abdominal pain and vomiting a lot or for a long time, parents need to take their children to see a pediatrician or pediatric gastroenterologist to be examined and indicated by doctors. testing to determine the cause and appropriate treatment to avoid complications due to long-term disease.

Concerned if mysterious hepatitis appears in Vietnam

BS. Huyen information, according to data reports around the world, it can be said that mysterious hepatitis is a dangerous disease, with a high rate of severe disease, although the number of cases has not yet broken out on a large scale. Currently, up to 10% of children need a liver transplant, many children are severe and die, so special attention is needed.

Experts say that the problem of liver transplantation abroad is quite easy, but in Vietnam it is still a challenge and moreover, there is not always enough liver for a transplant. Therefore, if a mysterious hepatitis disease appears in Vietnam, it is also very worrying and alarming.

Currently, the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control are still conducting investigations to determine the exact cause of the mysterious hepatitis. However, cases of mysterious hepatitis occurred in high endemic areas with adenovirus, with symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and markedly elevated liver enzymes.

The majority of reported cases were without fever and undetected infection with common viruses that cause acute viral hepatitis (hepatitis A, B, C, D and E viruses).

Before some information flows that mysterious acute hepatitis in children can be transmitted from pet dogs, infectious disease expert Nguyen Nguyen Huyen said “this is also possible because this is the causative agent of the disease.” gastrointestinal tract, contact with dogs can transmit pathogens from dogs to humans.

In fact, cats and dogs have caused a fairly common disease in humans, which is Toxocara canis (toxocariasis), which is transmitted through domestic cats and dogs. Toxocara canis also causes liver damage, but the symptoms are not as dramatic as those of the mysterious hepatitis that has been reported.

Therefore, according to BS. Huyen, the issue that needs attention now is to guide children to keep clean, especially when summer comes when diseases transmitted by gastrointestinal tract can develop. If you have cats and dogs in your family, you should deworm these species periodically and clean the pets.