Medical Experts Discover Why Many Children Suddenly Have Liver Damage
The adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) has been linked to an uptick in otherwise healthy kids being diagnosed with liver damage.
A mysterious outbreak of severe liver damage in children that began in late 2021 may have been caused by a range of common childhood viruses, according to NBC News. The cases have affected approximately 1,000 children globally, with experts left puzzled by their cause. However, the new study suggests that the adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) may be behind the outbreaks.
The severe acute hepatitis and liver damage that the children were facing is extremely rare in kids who were otherwise healthy, inciting the United States Center for Disease Control to investigate more than 360 cases that spread throughout 46 states in the last year and a half. Out of the investigated cases, 22 children’s livers had been damaged to the point of needing a liver transplant, while 13 children died from the damage.
Now, research is showing that AAV2 is the likely suspect for the liver damage, even though the virus has never been known to cause illness in the past. However, despite its previously benign reputation, 93 percent of the cases investigated showed that the children were positive for AAV2. Even more bizarrely, AAV2 didn’t appear to be acting alone but had recruited “helper” viruses that helped the parent virus break into liver cells and cause the damage.
Researchers never expected to find more than one virus causing liver damage and were shocked when analysis of blood, stool, and liver biopsies showed evidence of three or four different viruses, depending on the patient. 75 percent of cases showed signs of three viruses, while the remaining 25 percent showed signs of the patient harboring four viruses. One virus found, adenovirus type 41, is known to cause an upset stomach; additionally, researchers discovered herpes virus, an enterovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus (which can cause mononucleosis) in many patients.
It is not uncommon for children to experience multiple viruses at once. However, it is abnormal for the cases to be severe or even fatal, like the liver damage cases that were investigated. While researchers do not believe that COVID-19 was a direct cause of the outbreak, it is believed that it is a direct result of quarantining.
Because kids were kept home for so long, their immune systems became compromised at a pivotal time of development, leaving them susceptible to the viruses found in these liver damage cases. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that all cases were of children ages 10 or younger, all of whom spent important years of their life sheltered at home and then immediately emerged back into the public after the global pandemic ended. This means that this current outbreak could be just one of the unintended consequences of quarantining.
Luckily, there seems to be a downward trend for this particular outbreak, with fewer kids showing up at the hospital with unexplainable liver damage. As the outbreak fizzles out, doctors have added AAV2 screenings when kids show signs of liver inflammation, thanks to this study. Meanwhile, Dr. Amy Feldman from the Children’s Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs urges everyone to stop the spread of germs by washing hands as often as possible.
