The Cuban government reiterated this Friday that, for the moment, it has not detected any case of severe acute childhood hepatitis of unknown origin after the alert launched by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“No case has been detected that meets the criteria of acute hepatitis of unknown origin in Cuba,” said José Ángel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health (MINSAP), during the debate of the Health and Sports Commission of the National Assembly. of People’s Power (ANPP).
? Technical Note: Severe acute hepatitis of unknown cause in children
*️⃣ Following up on the reports disseminated on April 23, 2022 (two reports) on April 25, 2022 and April 29, 2022
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— PAHO/WHO (@opsoms) May 11, 2022
Portal Miranda specified that the MINSAP activated a surveillance system and a group of technicians and experts, which is working on a control plan in the event of the eventual appearance of cases in the country, reported the official Cubadebate website.
“Hepatitis is not a health problem in our country today and cases have decreased by more than 70% to date, compared to 2021,” he added.
However, said Portal Miranda quoted by the official portal CubaDebateMInsap has activated a surveillance system and has defined concepts for dealing with the disease.
“We constantly study cases at the reference institute of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), which may be suspicious, but so far we have not had any cases diagnosed in Cuba.”
This disease, of unknown origin, was first reported in the United Kingdom in April 2022 and since then 348 possible cases have been reported in 21 countries, including 26 children who required liver transplantation.
Cuba prepares to face possible cases of acute childhood hepatitis
In 15 of the countries where it occurred, it has been reported that its incidence is five or fewer cases, while a dozen cases have already been reported in the Americas.
For the WHO, this disease would be caused by an adenovirus, perhaps type 41, detected in dozens of these cases, although this class of virus is normally associated with mild respiratory ailments.
Efe/OnCuba.
