The president of the Dominican Society of Pediatricsdoctor Light Herreracalled on Monday all members of the institution to follow up on the alert issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the cases of childhood hepatitis detected in Europe and the United States.
The pediatrician asked to be alert to the main symptoms that are: jaundice (yellow eyes and skin), diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain. He also asked that any findings be reported immediately to Public Health authorities.
“We know that it is a priority to determine the etiology, which is not yet known, but it is thought that the cause may be a very rare complication of an adenovirus and they are commonly transmitted from person to person, by touching contaminated surfaces and through the respiratory tract”, Herrera said when contacted by Free Journal.
The specialist made a special call to parents to stay oriented and take preventive measures such as: frequent hand washing, covering coughs with the inside of the elbow and using disposable tissues.
For his part, the pediatrician and former president of the Dominican Medical College (CMD), Waldo Ariel Serumasked to activate the alert epidemiological because, being an infectious-contagious disease, a case could be imported.
“This new disease has already been diagnosed in the United States, nine cases, a nation very close to us, so it is not ruled out that it may occur in this country as has happened with other infectious-contagious diseases,” added the pediatrician trained in the Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital.
Suero’s recommendation to the Ministry of Public Health is to put alert to the National Epidemiological Surveillance System, to monitor the possible presence of this new disease in the country, notifying and investigating cases that present jaundice, increased transaminases and bilirubin in those under 20 years of age.
“We alert the medical population, fundamentally pediatricians, to keep this entity in mind within their diagnostic possibilities and urge the population not to be alarmed, but to continue with hygiene measures. Parents take their children to the pediatrician in the face of the slightest symptom that their children present”, he pointed out.
According to information published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and shared by the physician, “this new disease mainly affects children from months to 16 years of age.”
Its association with an adenovirus, specifically type 41, is being investigated and, so far, no relationship has been demonstrated with the COVID-19 vaccine, because many of these children who suffer from this new pathology did not receive vaccines.
So far, no cases have been detected in the country.
The WHO reports, to date, about 169 cases, 114 of these in the UK. Then they have been revealed in Spain (13), Denmark (6), Ireland (less than 5), the Netherlands (4), Italy (4), France (2), Norway (2), Romania (1), and Belgium (one). Outside of Europe, Israel (12 cases) and the United States (at least 9) join the list.
One death from this disease is also confirmed.
Of the 169 sick children diagnosed worldwide, 17 have received a liver transplant and one died, which defines the aggressiveness of this disease.
